I was just talking to my friend (who’s an insurance broker) about this. Unfortunately, no big surprise here:
State Farm Insurance supervisors systematically demanded that Hurricane Katrina damage reports be buried or replaced or changed so that the company would not have to pay policyholders’ claims in Mississippi, two State Farm insiders tell ABC News.
Kerri and Cori Rigsby, independent adjusters who had worked for State Farm exclusively for eight years, say they have turned over thousands of internal company documents and their own detailed statement to the FBI and Mississippi state investigators.
In an exclusive interview with ABC news, to be broadcast on 20/20 — Watch 20/20 tonight at 10 –and World News, the Rigsby sisters say they saw “widespread” fraud at the State Farm offices in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss.
“Katrina was devastating, but so was State Farm,” says Cori Rigsby.
At one point, they say State Farm brought in a special shredding truck they believe was used to destroy key documents. State Farm says shredding is standard to protect policyholders’ privacy.
The sisters say they saw supervisors go to great lengths to pressure outside engineers to prepare reports concluding that damage was caused by water, not covered under State Farm policies, rather than by wind.
They say reports that concluded that damage was caused by wind, for which State Farm would have to pay, were hidden in a special file and new reports were ordered.
Jail time, please.
As an actuary, I am sickened. Too many people work too hard for too long to get insurance premiums right, and insurers have their eyes wide open about what causes a claim. Then for some executives to make a decision to override the entire ratemaking process just because they thought they wouldn’t get caught? And it just happens to be in one of the poorest, blackest states of the union? Ugh. They should be strung up by the short ones.
State Farm has new ads out telling us what a great job their people did after Katrina. Think they might be worried about some backlash to this story?