- Encompassing quote tool is available on their site
- Available in all states across the country
- Favorable financial outlook across the board
- Pricey premiums
- Website has difficult-to-navigate user interface
- Significant amount of negative customer reviews online
The American Bankers Insurance Company was founded in 1947. This company has a DBA (doing business as) with Assurant, which has been doing business for 125 years.
Assurant is a subsidiary of the American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida. Assurant Specialty Property is the name under which American Bankers underwrites most of its home and flood insurance policies. Two other subsidiary companies underwrite Assurant in Minnesota and Georgia under the name Assurant Specialty Property.
Modular/manufactured homes and renters insurance is the name of the game for this insurance company. They also offer renters insurance and lender-placed homeowners policies. Apart from this, they also offer automobile insurance coverage and mortgage lending insurance.
If you’re interested in the American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida (or, Assurant, as we’ll call it), then keep reading! They’re licensed in every state, plus D.C., and Puerto Rico. Let us give you the 411 on this insurance company so you can spend less time shopping, and more time living.
Assurance insurance policies
If you look for American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida on the Internet, you may have a hard time finding the right company because this insurance firm operates under the name Assurant Specialty Property for their insurance transactions. Assurant Specialty Property operates in all 50 states, but they use the simplified name “Assurant” in Minnesota and Georgia. They specialize in home and renters insurance policies, but they also offer policies for manufactured homes.
The Assurant website boasts plenty of services and insurance products for their service areas. On a broad spectrum, these include:
- Mobile Device Protection & Support
- Multifamily Housing Solutions
- Vehicle Protection
- Home Appliances & Electronics
- Financial Protection
- Tools, Furniture & Jewelry
- Travel benefits
- Flood Solutions
Their site doesn’t give too much away in terms of coverage details. Because of this minor inconvenience, it’s difficult to come up with the best explanation or definition of “coverage”.
We do know that, on the home insurance front, they offer the following:
Manufactured home insurance
There are manufactured home insurance policies available directly for consumers, although manufactured home insurance is mainly a product offered to lenders and manufactured home communities.
Assurant offers different kinds of insurance for manufactured or modular homes. This includes coverage for structures and liabilities. The manufactured home policy of Assurant is geared towards manufactured home communities, but individuals can also opt to purchase one for their homes. They can offer Voluntary Manufactured Housing Insurance, Manufactured Home Total Advantage Program, Manufactured Home and Home Buyer’s Protection Plans, and Manufactured Home Extended Service Contract.
Renters insurance
Renters insurance from Assurant focuses more on personal property and personal liability protection. Their coverage allows for protection against fire, hail, explosion, smoke, vandalism, theft, or water damage. There are also optional endorsements that you can purchase with your policy, which includes sewer damage, pet damage, identity fraud expense, and earthquake damage.
Assurant claims that you’re able to manage your renters policy online. Unless you live in Minnesota or Texas, you can get this “fast and easy” renters insurance available and underwritten by American Bankers.
Flood insurance
Assurant has had flood insurance available under the National Flood Insurance Program for over 30 years. That makes them one of the first-ever participants of the program. Private commercial flood insurance is offered with:
- $500,000 in content coverage (like personal property, but for a commercial business).
- $1 Million in building coverage (like dwelling coverage, but for a commercial business).
- $10,000 max in discretionary funds paid.
- An average of 20% savings.
Lender-placed insurance
A lender-placed insurance policy is a form of insurance provided by a lender. This is also called a force-placed policy.
A homeowner is typically required to have adequate insurance coverage for their property as part of their mortgage agreement. Whenever a homeowner chooses not to purchase the required insurance policy, their lender will obtain the insurance necessary to protect the property. This serves as collateral for the loan and helps legitimize their coverage.
Assurant homeowners insurance premiums
Assurant has a focus on manufactured and modular homes. Using their quote tool (which was extremely convenient and easy to use) we could find a premium.
Our make-believe 20-year-old, 2,000-square-foot, $300,000 modular home in Arkansas was quoted at $4,785 a year. This quote was reached without checking the boxes for an in-ground pool, an animal that has caused bodily harm, or a business.
According to Forbes, Arkansan homes worth $350,000 in dwelling coverage can see an average of $2,156 a year. The quote we received was over double that much.
Their site does give you the option to up the ante on your personal property, other structures, and personal liability coverages, however. They let us adjust personal property coverage up to 75% of our dwelling coverage. Other structures top out at 50%, and personal liability only goes up to $100,000.
Things like dwelling coverage limits and peril deductibles have already been calculated for us. It also appears that they use replacement cost value to settle claims on your home and personal property, which is a huge plus.
There isn’t much information regarding any discounts for insurance. Considering the questions asked on the price tool, and the fact that they offer so many different services, Assurant is most likely offering multiple discounts.
Assurant claims
The amount of difficulty involved in filing a claim with Assurant depends on the type of policy you have. It can be confusing to find where to file the claim.
Flood insurance claims are handled through the NFIP, which leaves you to call them to discuss any policy information. Then again, their housing policies section explains how all you need to do is log into your “MyFloodInfo” policy center to file a claim.
On the contrary, you can submit a claim for your renters insurance through your Assurant account. You can also call a 24/7 number to report a renters insurance claim.
Their site is cluttered and filled with enough information to be overwhelmed by it all. This might make it confusing for customers who just want to get a claim started.
Customer ratings
The trend with American Bankers’ customers is their frustration with the company’s lack of responsiveness. Several customers from all over the internet of late have complained about unanswered phone calls and a lack of accountability.
Considering insurance is a customer-focused business, you’d like to see fewer negative reviews about customer service. Many believe they’re being ignored until the problems go away on their own. The “problems” in question are mainly lowball settlements and slow claims processes.
Nevertheless, you can find Assurant going through their online customer reviews and trying to mitigate customer gripes. Whether these issues are ever truly resolved leaves us to question their accountability as well.
Overall, they seem to receive more great/excellent reviews (about two-thirds of overall reviews) than fair/poor reviews (one-third of the reviews). The negative half uses expressions like “you’re better off without any coverage at all”. The happier portion has much less to say.
Financial ratings
Assurant has very solid financial ratings indicating that it is financially stable.
For starters, the BBB rates them with an A+. There have been over 2,000 complaints in the last 3 years, which is more than 600 a year. This number seems staggering and justifies customers’ complaints about accountability. Still, with 1,131 complaints resolved over the last year, their ratio for finding solutions seems fair.
AM Best also gave Assurant an A for “excellent” in terms of financial strength. They’ve even received an A+ for long-term issuer credit as of August 2022. They’ve maintained these ratings since 1953 and 2005, respectively.
Finally, Weiss gives American Bankers Insurance of Florida a “B” rating for property and casualty. They declare that their history of adequate reserve strength is acceptable, as well as their profitability index and liquidity.
Online presence
There is one thing that Assurant needs to invest in and that is its web development team. Their website needs an upgrade to provide convenience to their clients and potential customers.
It can also be difficult to find the right website unless you know what to look for. On the other hand, the claims section is said to be devoted to renters insurance. The member login area will allow the user to file different types of claims in this section. If the online claim option is confusing for the client, they can lodge their complaint via the 24/7 toll-free hotline. There seem to be multiple links and websites that provide details on their products and services, which adds to the confusion.
The website of Assurant doesn’t come with much information, which can be frustrating for any client that has unanswered questions concerning their policy. Apart from the online claims section and the online quotation option, there is not much to the Assurant website. It is tricky to navigate the website and it is even harder to find the information that you want on their webpage.
The Final Verdict
The American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida (doing business as Assurant) seems like a legitimate insurance company to trust. Many accredited companies have given their kudos to this company, and so have the better half of their customers.
Some people want a simple way to buy basic property insurance. Unfortunately, Assurant’s site is cluttered and filled with an overwhelming amount of information.
If premium prices were more affordable, we’d award Assurant a total rating of 4 stars. There’s just something about doubling the price of basic insurance that doesn’t justify the reward.
They have the worst customer service I’ve seen. Do not return calls and when they do they are hateful. They do not want to pay the finale payments after the work has been done. They keep telling the contractors to resend same invoices over and over. And argue with contractors saying how do we know that is the finale bill. Crazy. When try to complain about person over my claim the manager just transfer me back to the problem instead of taking care of problem. They are a joke. Oh yeah after I made a claim they added a bunch of endorsements to policy before they paid anything out but gave NO paperwork saying what endorsements were. Save your money and save the headache and go somewhere else for insurance.. I can not stress this enough…
i file a claim for a roof leak i need a new roof i talk to customer service the one i talk to said they would send someone to look at it i not heard from them agian they wedsight have no tel number to call i need help help when it rain it leaking all over the place i don’t know who to go to i am 86 year old so i can’t do to much thank you.
I just read the comment from one of your customers. I have to agree that this is the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I have been with them less than 9 months. When I received a copy of my policy, most of the information is incorrect. My daughter and I have tried to make contact with them to make corrections, but as of today’s date (Feb. 15, 2021) I have not heard anything. I mailed them a payment for the month of Feb, but the check has not cleared the bank. Makes me want to yell…WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
I am taking Jerri’s advice and am looking elsewhere .