People often ask me how to know if their insurance is trustworthy. 

We all accept the fact that not every restaurant chain is equally well capitalized. For instance, with thousands of locations worldwide, it’s obvious that McDonalds has far deeper pockets than the single-location, hometown hamburger stand. When you hire a major, national homebuilder to construct a new home, it’s expected that the company will have greater resources than a guy working out of the back of his pickup.

But things are not so clear and easy to see when it comes to insurance companies. After all, you are buying an intangible product, the description of which is usually reduced to a few pieces of paper. You may or may not know the agent. And, you probably have never been to the company’s home office, reviewed their books, or studied their claim-paying capabilities. Yet, you are about to invest money (maybe a lot) with this company based on its promise that it will be able to pay future claims you make. Wow! That’s a lot of trust. 

Something you need to know here is: All insurance companies are not equally strong financially. It doesn’t happen often, but there have been policyholders who couldn’t collect on their claims. This is why it behooves anyone buying insurance to research the company.

Fortunately, there are some ways to get helpful insights into an insurance company’s financial strength and ability to pay claims:

1) One is by contacting your state’s department of insurance. Often these governmental agencies can be helpful in assessing a company’s operations within your state.

2) For more information, there are several insurance research and rating organizations. Some of the better known are: Standard & Poor’s; Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co., Moody’s Investor Service, and A.M. Best. 

3) Don’t forget about your friends. There’s a lot to be said for word-of-month advertising. Ask around about their experiences with the companies you’re considering.

4) Check out consumer-oriented publications and internet sites. Notice that I said consumer-oriented.  There are sales-based internet sites that present themselves as unbiased authorities — beware.

Look Before You Leap

That’s always good advice, but especially when dealing with insurance. Before you make any major coverage change — consider the implications of your decision.  Never cancel one policy before you are certain that you have another policy to take its place.

As I’ve told you, I believe in term life insurance. I think it makes the best sense in most cases. However, I bought whole life coverage more than fifteen years ago —  before I had developed a serious heart problem. Today, if I wanted to drop my whole life coverage and buy term — I couldn’t do it. (Because of my health, term life insurance probably isn’t an option.) Can you imagine the problems I would have if I had dropped my whole life coverage before checking the availability of term? Always be sure your new coverage (whether it’s life, health, auto, homeowners, or whatever) is in place before you drop what you already have.