2022 AMERICA’S BEST INSURANCE COMPANIES

The insurance industry in the United States employs more than 2.8 million people across nearly 6,000 companies with net premiums written totaling $1.28 trillion in 2020 according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Like much of the global economy, the insurance industry in the United States was drastically altered by Covid-19.

From increased digitalization to a heightened awareness of mortality, the industry was forced to adapt as firms and their workforces look to serve consumers across a wide breadth of offerings, including auto, homeowners, renters, pet, dental and term and permanent life. The last year and a half has increased the importance of these companies’ technological offerings while insurers still aim to keep customers satisfied with traditional services like financial advice, customer service and benefits.

In order to determine which companies qualify as America’s Best Insurance Companies Forbes partnered with Statista to survey more than 16,000 customers and get their feedback on insurance company performance across eight metrics including overall satisfaction and whether they would recommend them to family and friends.

We also evaluated five different subdimensions including: financial advice; customer service; price/performance ratio; transparency; and damage/benefit ratio. Out of some 4,200 insurance companies that offer either property and casualty coverage, life and annuity coverage or health insurance, only 90 were awarded.

For most sectors of the economy, the last 12 months have been tumultuous. The lingering Covid-19 pandemic continues to challenge healthcare systems and businesses worldwide, and the effects of climate change have only made matters worse. Despite these challenges, insurers, companies that are employed to protect clients against major risks, have had a good year, especially when it comes to the stock market. Over the last 12 months, iShares U.S. Insurance company ETF has had a total return of 45% versus a robust 32% return for the S&P 500.

“On an absolute basis it’s been a great performance this year,” says Piper Sandler’s senior insurance industry analyst Paul Newsome.

The biggest change brought about by Covid-19, for insurers, has been an increased reliance on digital tools in sales and claims processing, in the absence of face to face interactions as well as a deeper awareness of mortality from consumers who have sat on their couches and watched news coverage of devastating death tolls.

Frank Spencer, vice president of life insurance sales for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company has seen the massive loss of life translate to the biggest year of life insurance premiums for his company in 2020 with 2021 set to surpass that high watermark.

“Sadly, because of the pandemic the United States population is very much aware of mortality,” Spencer says. A run on life insurance hasn’t been the only major shift during the pandemic as the in person interactions that used to be a major part of the insurance industry have been increasingly replaced by app-based claims, online billing and other virtual replacements that have become a necessity in a time of social distancing.

“We probably got five years worth of digital adoption in 2020,” Spencer adds. That change was less a product of technological innovations by the companies and more so consumers opting to use tools developed well before lockdowns and mask mandates, according to Beth Riczko, president of property and casualty personal lines at Nationwide. “In the industry, there was a strong focus on building digital capabilities, pre-Covid, but adoption was somewhat slow,” she adds.

America’s Best Insurance Companies 2022

Company	Headquarters	Year Founded	Employees
AAA	Heathrow, Florida	1902
AAA Life	Livonia, Michigan	1969	450
Aflac	Columbus, Georgia	1955	6,239
AKC Pet	Raleigh, North Carolina	2003
Alfa	Montgomery, Alabama	1946	2,600
AllCare Health	Grants Pass, Oregon	1994	250
Allianz	Munich, Germany	1890	150,269
Allstate	Northbrook, Illinois	1931	42,160
American Family	Madison, Wisconsin	1927	13,225
American International Group	New York, New York	1919	45,000
American Modern	Amelia, Ohio	1949	1,200
American National	Galveston, Texas	1905	4,600
Amica	Lincoln, Rhode Island	1907	3,832
Anthem	Indianapolis, Indiana	2004	70,600
Auto-Owners	Lansing, Michigan	1916	6,329
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama	Birmingham, Alabama	1936	3,300
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois	Chicago, Illinois	1936	10,845
BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina	Columbia, South Carolina	1946	16,000
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas	Richardson, Texas	1929
BlueCross and BlueShield of Kansas City	Kansas City, Missouri	1938
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee	Chattanooga, Tennessee	1945	6,000
Capital Blue Cross	Harrisburg, Pennsylvania	1938	1,500
CareSource	Dayton, Ohio	1989	4,500
Chubb	Zurich, Switzerland	1882	31,000
Cincinnati Insurance Company	Fairfield, Ohio	1950	4,925
COUNTRY Financial	Bloomington, Illinois	1925	3,000
Embrace Pet	Cleveland, Ohio	2003	220
Erie	Erie, Pennsylvania	1925	6,000
Farm Bureau Financial Services	West Des Moines, Iowa	1939	5,600
Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee	Columbia, Tennessee	1948	350
Farmers Alliance	McPherson, Kansas	1888	800
Farmers	Woodland Hills, California	1928	21,000
Farmers Mutual of Nebraska	Lincoln, Nebraska	1891	265
Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance	Des Moines, Iowa	1959	267
Florida Blue	Jacksonville, Florida	1944	6,500
Geico	Chevy Chase, Maryland	1936	40,000
Globe Life	McKinney, Texas	1951	2,974
GoAuto	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	2009	143
Grange Insurance Association	Seattle, Washington	1894
Guardian Life Insurance Co of America	New York, New York	1860	9,500
Hanover Insurance Group	Worcester, Massachusetts	1852	4,300
Humana	Louisville, Kentucky	1961	48,700
Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance	Indianapolis, Indiana	1934	1,200
John Hancock Financial	Boston, Massachusetts	1862	6,700
Kentucky Farm Bureau	Louisville, Kentucky	1919	700
Knight of Columbus	New Haven, Connecticut	1882	750
Legal & General Group	Frederick, Maryland	1981	13,876
Lemonade	New York, New York	2015	567
LIBERTY Dental Plan	Santa Ana, California	2001
Liberty Mutual Insurance	Boston, Massachusetts	1912	45,000

 

EDITED BY JASON BISNOFF

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