American European Insurance Group, an insurance company selling insurance to small business owners & home insurance in the states of New Jersey, New York, & Pennsylvania, through its two subsidiary companies, Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company & Rutgers Enhanced Insurance Company, has had its AM Best Financial Strength Rating (FSR) downgraded from “B+” (good) to B (fair) as of 6/17/2013, but with a stable outlook, which means there is not likely to be another downgrade in the near future. Its “B” rating & stable outlook was affirmed on 9/16/2015. Most insurance agents will tell you not to insure with any home insurance company, with less than an AM Best grade of “A-,” for the financial strength of the company. The grade of “B” may still be above average when you are in high school, but it’s not a good grade for an insurance company.
This blog post will tell you about American European Insurance Group, and its home insurance customer complaint ratings of its subsidiary companies for the last three years, so you have some objective measure of their customer service. If you’re a customer, this review will help you decide if you should consider other insurance companies. If you are considering American European property insurance, such as homeowners, condo, or tenants insurance, this review can help you decide if it might be a good choice for you. A smart insurance shopper knows there are big differences in price & coverage among home insurance companies, so it’s smart for you to shop with many companies, to find the best price, coverage, and service for you.
The Insurance Journal reported, in this article about the American European Insurance Company AM Best rating downgrade, as explained by AM Best, the lower rating is due to the company’s high operating expenses. American European Insurance Company, Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company, & Rutgers Enhanced Insurance Company, the three subsidiaries making up American European Insurance Group, had their AM Best Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of B (fair) reaffirmed on 6/17/2014, with a stable outlook, meaning there is not likely to be another downgrade or upgrade in the near future. If you have home, condo, or renters insurance through one of American European’s subsidiary companies, such as Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company, you should consider shopping for a more financially stable company with a good complaint record. This blog post will also show you some of the top home insurance companies in NJ, NY,& PA, to help you shop. Home insurance rates & coverage options vary a lot among different insurance companies, with some companies charging twice as much as others, or not having a coverage option you need. Contrary to what you might expect, some of the companies with the best ratings & complaint records may have competitive rates for you. You don’t have to pay more for better service or coverage. It’s very possible to find a better insurance company for your home AND save a lot of money.
About American European Insurance, its website, claims contact information for the company, and how to get a price quote.
American European Insurance Company was established in 1986, and sells its home & tenants insurance only through local independent insurance agents appointed to represent the company, in NJ, NY, & PA. Independent insurance agents represent multiple insurance companies. You can find agents in your area representing American European on the American European Insurance Company website, but if you contact one of them for a home insurance price quote, the agent will look at the rates and coverage options (and, yes, the percentage of commission & contract obligations, but there is not often a conflict of interest, keeping an independent agent from making the best recommendation based on the needs of the customer) for all the home insurance companies the agent represents, not just American European. If you are insured with American European, contact your agent about your concerns about the company’s financial stability, because of its AM Best rating. If the agent does not offer to quote you other home insurance companies, and tells you not to worry about it, check out what other agents or insurance companies can do for you. If you live in a coastal area, or in a community at risk of catastrophic disasters, such as hurricanes or wild fires, insuring with American European may make sense if you don’t qualify for other insurance companies, or if the rates of other companies are too high. You can find out more about American European, locate an agent, or file a claim at its website at aeiginsurance.com. You can also report a claim against American European, Rutgers Casualty, or Rutgers Enhanced Insurance Company by calling 1-800-541-1728.
American European Insurance Group AM Best Financial Strength Rating
AM Best is the most frequently referenced insurance company rating agency among agents, companies, and the insurance-buying public. AM Best recently announced the downgrade of all its subsidiaries, American European Insurance Company, Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company, and Rutgers Enhanced Insurance Company, to the Financial Strength Rating of “B” (Fair). Whenever possible, its best to insure your home with a company having at least an “A-” AM Best rating. If you want to find out more about what AM Best Financial Strength Ratings mean, read my blog post about AM Best ratings, or go to the AM Best website.
American European Insurance Group Complaint Statistics & Ratings
The complaint ratios I show below display the ratio of the company’s U.S. Market Share of closed complaints compared to the company’s U.S. Market Share of premiums for a specific policy type. Complaint ratios lower than “1” have less complaints than average, and complaint ratios over “1” have more complaints than average. The lower the complaint ratio, the less complaints against the company. The higher the complaint ratio, the more complaints against the company. The complaint ratios were obtained from the NAIC Consumer Information Source.
The complaint ratios are numerical scores, & may not be simple for people to interpret. I devised a grade system, giving grades to insurance companies based on their home insurance complaint ratios, to make it as easy as possible to find the best insurance companies, and avoid the worst insurance companies.
B = Better than average. Insurance companies with complaint ratios less than 75% of the average insurance company.
C = Average. Insurance companies with complaint ratios from 75% to 125% of the average insurance company.
W = Worse than average. Insurance companies with complaint ratios more than 125% of the average insurance company.
Here are the complaint ratios & ratings for the three subsidiary companies making up American European Insurance Group:
American European Insurance Company Home Insurance Customer Complaint Statistics & Ratings
This subsidiary had no home, condo, or renters insurance policies in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 or 2014.
Rutgers Enhanced Insurance Company Home Insurance Complaint Statistics & Ratings
2014 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = B (No complaints in 2014)
2013 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = B (No complaints in 2013)
2012 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = B (No complaints in 2012)
This subsidiary had no home, condo, or renters insurance policies in 2010 or 2011.
Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company Home Insurance Complaint Statistics & Ratings
B = Better than average C = Average W = Worse than average
2014 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = B (No complaints in 2014)
2013 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = B (0) (No complaints)
2012 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = W (3.50)
2011 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = W (2.29)
2010 Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratio = W (1.27)
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If American European was a larger insurance company, I would consider their complaint history terrible. However, with small companies like this, a small number of complaints can result in high complaint ratios.
For example, in 2010, Rutgers Casualty had only 2 customer complaints for home insurance reported to the state regulatory authority. In 2012, Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company had 6 home insurance complaints, but only one of them involved an unsatisfactory settlement for a claim (a common reason for a complaint with auto & home insurance for all companies), and claims complaints are the complaints that most concern me.
Rutgers Enhanced has no complaints, but it looks like it only started insuring homes in 2012. Rutgers Casualty is six times as large as Rutgers Enhanced in 2012, based on the annual premium charged for all of their home insurance policies, so Rutgers Casualty is the most representative complaint history for the insurance group.
I prefer insurance companies with a consistent history of a better than average complaint record, and prefer to avoid companies with a consistent complaint history of worse than average. But a consistent better than average (or even average) complaint ratio year after year, can be hard to achieve for insurance companies with a small market share.
Alternatives to American European Insurance Group
When it comes to home insurance, you want a good price, but you also want good coverage options, service, & financial strength. All of the home insurance companies below have a higher AM Best financial strength rating than American European Insurance.
To help you sort them out in terms of good customer service, I group them in relation to their performance for claims satisfaction, as measured by JD Power. The house you own is most people’s largest investment, so if you are unfortunate and have a large property claim, nothing is more important than the claims service provided by your home insurance company.
You can find out more about the JD power rating for these companies and others by reading my 2014 JD Power US Property Claims Satisfaction Study analysis. Most of these companies are available in most of the US states, but some them may not be available in New Jersey. You can get price quotes from many of these companies by using the ads on my website.
Here are two of the largest national home insurance companies:
Allstate insurance
This should come as no surprise to people, because these are two very familiar brand names, and it’s hard for anyone to avoid the large amount of advertising by these two companies. However, as far as 2014 property claims satisfaction, State Farm & Allstate scored slightly below the study average score. Yet, given their size & large amount of home insurance customers, you would be making a mistake to not see what Allstate & State Farm can do for you.
But don’t stop your shopping with these two companies. These next three insurance companies scored above average for property claims satisfaction in the 2014 JD Power study, and may have the best price for you:
Nationwide insurance
Hartford insurance
These next two companies should be at the top of the list, because they are the highest scoring home insurance companies in the 2014 JD Power study measuring property claims satisfaction. Amica is open to everyone, but USAA is restricted to the military, their immediate family members, and honorably discharged veterans.
USAA insurance
You can find out these companies AM Best financial strength ratings, JD Power customer & claims satisfaction ratings, and customer complaint ratings on the home page of this website.
Have you heard of American European Insurance? How about Rutgers Casualty? Which company insures your home? Comment on my facebook page. You can also reach me at help@smartshopyourcarinsurance.com if you have questions for me. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news & new blog entries at CarInsWatch.