american bankers insurance company of florida is a property & accident insurance company operating under the name of assurant; this is the name that is front and center on the company website. issue specialized home insurance throughout the country.
If you need to compare insurance companies, we offer a free online comparison tool that can help. reviewing and comparing insurance products across the board can help you find the right policy service options, rather than selecting an insurer based on what’s shown on television. In addition, this allows you to see which companies have stable prospects and what their customers’ opinions are like.
Reading: Who owns american bankers insurance company of florida
what are american bankers?
american bankers was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in miami, florida. They operate as a subsidiary of American Bankers Insurance Group, and use the Assurant name as their DBA (doing business as) brand.
american bankers writes home and flood insurance policies in most states under the assurant specialty property name, while two other subsidiary companies are assurant’s underwriters in minnesota and georgia.
The company underwrites specialty homeowners including manufactured homes and has a strong focus on renters insurance. the website setup is confusing, with various web addresses and links, all with different information. Unless you know how to search under the specialty property name of Assurant, you’ll have a hard time finding the right website. the last time we reviewed this company, the offers were more widespread, but they seem to have focused on two main products.
assurant offers coverage to individuals, but also has many businesses in the insurance market placed by lenders. That means they provide forced insurance policies on homes for lenders when homeowners don’t meet insurance requirements.
what products does american bankers/assurant offer?
The company’s website has a very limited description of the policies available, making it very difficult to understand what they offer. it is also difficult to clarify which policies are underwritten by US bankers and which by other companies.
Homeowners Insurance and Renters Insurance are listed on the main website; there is also a link to a manufactured home insurance program.
homeowners insurance offerings are named: choice and first selection; however, we couldn’t find any more information about them.
Manufactured home insurance appears to be primarily a product offered to lenders and manufactured home communities, although a direct-to-consumer policy is also available. manufactured home insurance links to a different part of the website under the name property solutions, adding to the confusion. this part of the site was more helpful than other areas.
renters insurance is also available and again appears to have its own separate web link, where again few details are available. this coverage is specifically listed as being underwritten by US bankers, unlike the other sections where it is not made clear who the underwriter is.
Flood insurance is also available through the National Flood Insurance Program.
Are the company’s rates affordable?
The only part of the website that offers an online quote is for manufactured homes, so we ran a sample. the system was easy to use and straightforward. We used a standard single-width manufactured home in our home area of Southern California for the sample, valued at $75,000.
the rate returned for our quote was $759/year.
Because we don’t typically sample manufactured home coverage, we can’t provide a comparison of this rate or offer an opinion on the value offered. the system offered several useful payment options and a variety of coverage options and deductibles.
how are insurance claims processed?
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Claims can be submitted online through the member login area at myassurantpolicy.com, yet another branch of the intricate web presence. While we found this information only in the renters insurance section, it appears to be the place to file claims for all individual assurant products.
There is also a toll-free number available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to report a claim. again, this was found on the renter’s insurance site, and may be for that purpose only. however, since this is the only product that we could easily confirm is backed by US bankers, it is the most important for this review.
The main page has a contact list for claims information broken down by product type. this leads to a contact form that can be submitted for a representative to contact you.
Are the company ratings and consumer reviews positive?
The american bankers better business bureau (bbb) file under the name of assurant, where they have an a+ rating. there are 1,258 complaints registered in the last three years. This is a slightly alarming number, but it hasn’t affected the overall bbb rating. the company is accredited since 2009.
consumer affairs has a page dedicated specifically to assurant renters insurance, which is underwritten by American bankers. Of the 64 reviews, 59 are one-star reviews. many complaints refer to denied claims, and there are also comments about the difficulty of obtaining any response or contact from the company.
yelp has a handful of positive reviews mixed in with the negative ones, but the overall rating is still 1.5 stars, based on 31 reviews. the complaints are similar here.
what is the end result?
This company has a confusing website and a confusing system for getting information, so it’s not surprising to read that customers had problems with claims. Those looking for a simple, straightforward approach to buying basic homeowners insurance may find that more clear information is available from other companies.
There are many insurance buying guides available and it is possible that comparing the service of each insurer will lead to a better business profile. one where the customer reviews are better and the process isn’t as confusing.
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