- Tiered coverage lets you choose the coverage you’re comfortable with.
- More customers are content with home insurance claims.
- There’s no online quote tool.
- They don’t serve all 50 states.
Founded in 1912 by James S. Kemper, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Corporation was an accident insurance company that exclusively catered to the residents of Chicago. Since then, it has evolved into a major insurance company based in Chicago, known as Kemper.
In a short amount of time, Lumbermens jumped to the forefront of Chicago’s automobile insurance providers. A mere four years later, the company ventured out to other states with its extensive range of services. Among them all, home insurance is one of its most significant products.
With a whopping $13 billion in assets, Kemper claims to revolutionize the insurance industry by offering personalized solutions that are affordable and user-friendly. With a clientele of over 5 million, we’re here to see if they can truly keep up.
In this review, we’re going to zoom in on Kemper home insurance to see just how revolutionary their home insurance coverage is. While we’re at it, we’ll discover what customers and financial institutions have to say.
Kemper homeowners insurance coverages
Kemper extends homeowners insurance to residents of 28 states. In these states, Kemper insists on working with independent agents to sell their products. So, we’re not able to see our coverages up close and personal with a quote tool. Instead, we did some digging and found out just what kind of insurance you can expect from a Kemper home insurance policy.
For starters, their policies encompass typical home insurance features, such as shielding your dwelling, and any detached structures and personal possessions. Liability coverage is also included, benefiting in the event that you cause harm to someone’s property or are held responsible for an injury. Additionally, if you are forced to leave your home temporarily because of a covered loss, Kemper will provide additional living expenses.
This company enlists a tiered product theme. They have three levels of protection available for homeowners, each with its own specialties and benefits.
Kemper Prime Home Enhanced and Kemper Prime Home Elite have something in common. They feature a blanket property limit that can boost your claims settlement flexibility. This feature allows for combining the limits of different property coverage categories, giving you a single maximum amount paid for a covered loss in any of the categories. This includes your dwelling and other structures.
- Kemper Prime Home Essentials is the first tier of coverage. It’s simple enough but still offers crucial protection for your property and belongings. Coverage can be expanded by including additional coverage like water backup, personal property replacement cost, and equipment breakdown.
- Kemper Prime Home Enhanced provides all the same benefits, but with even higher limits. Plus, it includes automatic coverage for water backup, personal property replacement costs, and identity fraud expenses.
- Kemper Prime Home Elite is a considerable last tier of coverage. As you can imagine, it offers the most comprehensive and extensive coverage available and will cost you the prettiest penny.
Kemper has a few endorsements available for certain tiered policies as well. For example, the scheduled personal property and blanket valuable item endorsements offer comprehensive coverage for all your precious items. These could be possessions ranging from antiques to collectibles and jewelry.
You can also safeguard your vital household appliances and systems with Equipment Breakdown coverage for a marginal additional fee.
Kemper homeowners insurance premiums
This insurer is another company that does its business solely through the work of independent agents. As such, we’re not able to retrieve an online quote.
By looking at the states where home insurance is offered, we can make an estimate of your premium costs. According to the average rates in these states, you’re looking at around $538 to $1,740 for $200,000 in dwelling coverage, and between $998 and $3,383 for $500,000 worth of dwelling coverage. As you can imagine, Texas is the state where you can expect the highest annual premiums.
You can adjust your prediction based on which tier of coverage you need. If the first tier of coverage is enough to thoroughly protect your home and belongings, you could get away with a less expensive premium.
Customers say that Kemper offered them cheap and affordable rates. Many of these individuals seem to still be in the honeymoon phase, where they haven’t yet filed a claim or experienced inflation.
Kemper home insurance discounts
Packaging your policy allows you to save money on both your auto and homeowners insurance premiums. Plus, you’ll simplify your billing with one convenient payment and only have to pay one deductible. Kemper also offers various other discounts and chances to save to help you reduce your expenses.
Get discounts on your insurance premiums in these different scenarios:
- Bundle your home and auto insurance with Kemper Personal Insurance.
- Be an active or retired military member or cadet.
- Install whole house water leak protection or automatic gas shutoff valve for home safety.
- Equip your property with alarms and detectors as protective devices.
Customer satisfaction
The good news is many Kemper complaints seem to be majorly about auto insurance. Home insurance complaints reached 0.55 on the National Complaint Index, which is less than average. Policyholder service was low on the number of complaints here. As you can imagine, they were mostly geared toward claims delays and low-balled settlements.
Kemper is an accredited business by the BBB with an A+ rating for customer complaint mitigation. Of the 1,126 complaints settled in the last 3 years, 364 were just from the last year alone. This is still a higher number than we’d like to see, but not as bad as some other more reputable companies.
When we look at customer reviews, the majority of them are underwhelmed. On the bright side, hundreds are pleased with their service, citing very professional and caring customer interaction. However, these satisfied customers are no match for the amount of Kemper’s insured homeowners who encountered disingenuous and unresponsive agents.
As always, when you work with an insurance company that enlists the skills of insurance agents, you should be careful to get matched with the right one. Kemper’s online tool helps you find several agencies near you where you can thoroughly shop for not only the right insurance but the right insurance agent.
Processing claims
If you need to file a claim with Kemper, all you have to do is go to their website and find their claims center. From there, you can select “Property Claim” and begin your process. Of course, you could call your agent and submit a claim as well if you’re able to within business hours. They also have a phone number you can call between 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m.
Long-time customers of 20+ years have chimed in to report that through hail claims over the years, they haven’t had any issues with Kemper’s speed or quality. In fact, many customers revel in how quickly and easily Kemper was able to come through and fix their property.
Again, it matters what kind of people you get stuck with to help fix your claims. Agents, adjusters, contractors, and other professionals that work for Kemper may not directly reflect the care and concern advertised. Other customers are upset about having to go weeks without hearing from their adjuster or waiting at least a year to have funds paid out.
Financial stability
According to AM Best, Kemper has an “Excellent” A- rating for financial stability and long-term issuer credit. These are recent downgrades from 2022, where each of these criteria earned “A” ratings.
A press release cited a mixture of factors contributing to the extended decline in earnings. This included persistent inflation and interruptions in the supply chain, which took a toll on operational efficiency. This combination resulted in reduced risk-adjusted capitalization levels for the overall enterprise.
On the other hand, AM Best expects that Kemper’s earnings will gradually improve over the remainder, which explains why their “stable” rating is intact.
Weiss Ratings is on the same page in terms of financial stability. They’ve provided Kemper with an insurance safety rating of a solid “B”, which is a pretty good score. It outlines a belief that the company provides decent security financially and has the resources to continue dealing with adverse issues, like inflation mentioned before.
Final thoughts
So, Kemper has decent coverage available that, in theory, should safeguard your home and property quite well. The options available allow you to pick a base coverage and customize it accordingly. The caveat comes when you consider your partners with Kemper.
Customers either praise Kemper for their time and service or curse them for taking too long or denying too many claims. Homeowners want to feel protected from the products they pay for. The right team of professionals is what makes the difference between a great experience and a nightmare.
Nevertheless, if you appreciate bundling services and don’t mind picking coverage according to your budget and needs, Kemper may be the insurer for you. This is especially the case if you like having a personal agent.
Been with the company for almost 30 yrs. {home owners} never filed a claim. When i filed a claim, it was denied 3 times, each time i needed to send in more information, only to be denied again. I have come to the conclusion that they are not reliable and they do not pay claims, only collect payments. The agents can not help you they only collect premiums. The representatives only are concerned about what they see in front of them and are not there to help solve your problem. Reliable is only a name, they are not reliable