Revealing the Most And Least Popular U.S. Insurance Companies

Insurance is an industry built on trust, and trust itself is built on a good reputation. Like in many industries, modern insurance companies are finding their reputations increasingly tied to the digital voices of their customers. Online reviews have become the new word of mouth, and a few stars can make the difference between a thriving business and one that’s struggling.

At Insuranceopedia.com, we have taken a clear, objective view through the lens of these online reviews to analyze a candid snapshot of customer sentiment in the insurance industry. The image reveals an appreciation and trust in the Property and Casualty (P&C) sector and a disappointment in the coverage and support health insurers provide.

But it’s more than just numbers — it is people giving their unfiltered opinions which, deservedly so, are shaping the reputations of these industry giants. We hope our findings can be a celebration and recommendation for the top, but also a warning, and a call for change for the firms which don’t live up.

We analyzed over 120,000 reviews for the top P&C, health, and life insurance companies in the US to find the best and worst in the industry, and here’s what we found.

The Results

The Top 10

The Bottom 10

P&C Insurers Emerged On Top

The first notable trend of the results is that the top 6 firms by average customer review are all Property and Casualty (P&C) specialized firms. It seems that the customer experience dealing with P&C firms is more positive than when dealing with the other sectors. These top firms all have a strong commitment to customer service alongside quality and have set a high bar for customer satisfaction, which the rest of the industry should be aiming for.

#1

Topping the charts is COUNTRY Financial, with a near-perfect 4.8 average rating.

COUNTRY’s customers are almost unanimously pleased by their focus on customer service, mentioned in a high number of their reviews. Their reviews indicate they consistently deliver quality service alongside commitment to their clients – an impressive first place goes to them.

“…They’re always incredibly responsive, kind, and willing to help resolve any issue. I love knowing that I can reach them any time I need to and don’t have to worry about a call center and long wait times like with other agencies. There’s a lot to be said about good customer service and personal touch, even when it comes to your insurance provider.” – A COUNTRY Financial customer.

#2

A close second place goes to the Markel Corporation. They scored 4.71 on average, less than 0.1 behind COUNTRY.

Like COUNTRY, their customers praise their customer service alongside the quality of their work & coverage. However, the data suggests that Markel has twice the customer base of the other firms in the top 5. Maintaining quality in both service and product can become more difficult with scale, but Markel seems to be handling both extremely well, earning them the silver medal on our ranking table.

“If your business is a fit with Markel you are one of the lucky ones since they have an amazing team.” – A Markel Corp. Customer.

#3

Rounding out our top 3 is Shelter Insurance, receiving an average rating of 4.61.

Establishing a trend in our top-rated providers, the quality of customer service is the focus of many of Shelter’s reviews, and customers seem more than happy with the coverage they receive.

“[The] staff are probably the nicest people I’ve ever dealt with in the insurance business. They’re so helpful and very knowledgeable and go out of their way for you! I highly recommend working with them and getting your insurance through them! I’m definitely a happy customer.” – A Shelter customer.

Life Insurance Industry Performance

Despite the top spots being claimed by P&C insurance companies, providers from the life insurance sector have the highest average rating (4.2 vs 4.0 for P&C). The top-rated of these is Sammons, coming in 7th overall, with an average review score of 4.5.

Also with an average score of 4.5 is the most reviewed firm on our list – State Farm. Covering both life insurance and P&C, the firm received nearly 17,000 of the reviews we analyzed, which makes maintaining such a high score across so many customers even more impressive and earning it a well-deserved spot in our top 10.

The Unhealthy Business of Health Insurers

In juxtaposition to how well P&C and Life insurance firms are performing, the narrative shifts when looking at health insurance firms. Both the life insurance and P&C insurance sectors have average review ratings of around 4/5. In health insurance, the average review is just 2.9/5.

In some ways, this low score is understandable – customers are not likely to be in the mood to give a 5-star review when their health is in a situation which requires them to make use of their health insurance. However, analyzing review content suggests that this scapegoat doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. If the reviews are to be believed, the poorly rated health insurers have earned their low scores entirely due to poor care and services.

A Diamond in the Rough

Amongst this sea of discontent, stand a few well-rated Health insurers who prove the low ratings are not a symptom of the sector, but failings of individual companies. At the top, the best-rated health insurer is HCSC, ranked 15th overall and is praised for its coverage, price tag, and customer service.

“HCSC has been an excellent provider of healthcare coverage for me and my family. Their plans are comprehensive, affordable, and offer access to a range of healthcare providers. Their customer service team is friendly and always available to help with any questions or concerns. I suggest this agency to anyone looking for quality healthcare coverage.” – An HCSC customer.

The Worst-performing Insurance Providers

Notably, all of our bottom 5 firms received an average rating under 2/5, an impressively poor result, especially when you consider that it is impossible to rate 0/5 on the review services used. John Hancock Life Insurance holds the dubious distinction of being the least favorably reviewed life insurance company, with an average rating of 1.94 and ranking it the 5th worst insurance firm we analyzed.

4th from last, and the worst-rated P&C firm we analyzed was Kemper, with an average rating of 1.7. Leaving the 3 lowest rated firms all to the health insurance sector. These firms are Molina Healthcare, Blue Shield of California, and the worst-rated insurance company we found; Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, which scored an abysmal average rating of 1.3. The reviews themselves speak of far worse than poor customer service, often reporting claims being unjustly denied, and occasionally even raising suspicions of malpractice.

“They promised my mother that she would be covered for her chemotherapy and even talked to her hospital about it so she started making large payments to them then on her first day of therapy they refused to pay for it.” – A Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Customer

“Specializing in incompetence and a lack of concern. Maybe the worst customer service I’ve experienced.” – A Blue Shield of California Customer

“Awful insurance company, through and through. Do not give these people your money or time. They lie and deceive, will say whatever to get your money and then lie about coverage and providers.” – A Molina Healthcare Customer

A Word of Advice

“It’s eye-opening to see such varied customer feedback across providers,” says Max Coupland, CEO of Insuranceopedia. “This article highlights the crucial role of customer service and clear communication. Sometimes, you must look beyond premiums and policy details to the support and service you will receive when you need it most.

Ultimately, the best insurance experience comes from a company with consistency – where you are certain of the service you will receive if and when you ever need to call.”

As Max says, not all insurance companies are made equal, so we hope this article has persuaded you that, whenever possible, you should take time to research insurance providers before making your choice. The variety in quality of coverage, customer service, and cost is vast, even across only the biggest firms, so we hope that if you can choose your provider, you choose wisely.

Methodology

To create our ranking list we first created a shortlist of insurance companies to consider. We took the top 50 P&C and Health insurers from Reinsurance NE and Forbes, and the top 15 life insurers from Insurance Business Mag.

We then gathered reviews for places of business from across the USA which were associated with these companies. We took these reviews from Yelp and Google using their respective APIs.

The final list is shorter than 115 as State Farm, Nationwide and AIG were in both P&C and Life insurance lists. Furthermore, 7 more firms were excluded due to the low number of reviews written about them, resulting in a final list of 105 unique companies.

The quoted review statements were taken directly from Google reviews.