SUTTIE'S INSURANCE AGENCY INC: Bad customer service, failure to disclose, bad faith, fiduciary malpractice. We insured our 2nd home thru Suttie's with SafeCo decades ago. Liberty Mutual Insurance (LMI) bought SafeCo, 2008. LMI also owns: Ironshore, American Fire & Casualty, Ohio Casualty, Peerless Insurance, etc.
Our issue was our cedar fence extension, about 100' was badly damaged by a 2019 storm. LMI insulted us with a $265 offer, then applied our $500 deductible, paying us $0. Replace cost will be about $5,000. We can't afford, leaving our home vulnerable to home invasions, vandalism, increased injury risk, and difficult for us to sell. Repeated appeals by us all fell on deaf ears.
For a decade+, Sutties gladly took our premium monies for LMI, with LMI's little or no intention of ever paying claims. I emailed complaints to Sutties several times but received no response.
We investigated LMI. Since LMI bought SafeCo, SUTTIES FAILED TO DISCLOSE TO US what it knew or should have known critical to our insurance decision-making:
NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES: Worse thing any U.S. firm can do is to betray, demean and disrespect our Country. Very big deal to us: I am a Disabled Veteran who honorably volunteered and served our Country during time of war. LMI runs despicable TV ads showing The Statue of Liberty – sacred American symbol – on one side.
On other side is a person acting or looking bizarre and/or crazy – implies that The Statue of Liberty (America) makes people act and appear bizarre and/or crazy. In many LMI ads (eg: emu ads), a garish yellowish color is prominent, which appears to closely match the color of Chinese flag stars and some Chinese cultural symbols (eg: Chinese Lantern).
DOD regards China as a major enemy of the U.S. LMI is the only "American" insurance company allowed to operate in Western China (Chongqing); means that China controls LMI. China never does anything for free. If LMI substituted its Statue of Liberty image with that of First Emperor Chin Shih Huang for the same insulting ads, for sure, LMI would have zero China market share – if not sued by China.
Disturbing complex dealings involving China (Fosun International Ltd, insurance company), LMI and its Ironshore subsidiary, Wright & Co. (previous subsidiary of Ironshore; bought, later sold by Fosun), Starr Companies, Lloyd's China platform, and CoverWallet. Wright USA writes most of the liability insurance policies for Federal workers, including CIA agents.
The personal, private and financial data of 1,000s of CIA and other Federal law enforcement officers and their families are at grave risk of compromise. Wright's database is a goldmine for China to identify and locate undercover CIA agents, and to find which CIA and other Federal employees and family members, are most vulnerable to blackmail, bribes and agent recruitment. Grave National Security risk.
CRIMINALITY ISSUES: Hard-earned premiums are not intended to pay for multi-million dollar compensation packages + golden parachutes for about 10 of its execs, fleet of 5 long-distance luxury corporate jets, state-of-the-art hangar, lavish resort stays, etc. LMI. You expect your claims to be evaluated and paid fairly, quickly, fully based on your coverage, losses – not based upon some arbitrary low-ball formula contrived by MBAs.
Again, LMI. Nor expect their claims adjusters to be financially rewarded for denying or low-balling you. Again, LMI. Nor tolerate bad employee treatment: LMI's history of not paying overtime, paying much smaller salaries/bonuses to its female employees, and its glass ceiling. Out of LMI's 54 Operational Managers, only 2 have identifiable female names! LMI abuses its female employees by duping them into doing its dirty work for their big boys who then use these ripped-off premiums to pay for lavish lifestyles.
Out of about 100 insurance firms, LMI ranks about #8 from the bottom – many LMI bad faith and breach of contract complaints. "Soaring greed at Liberty Mutual" (Brian McGrory, Boston Globe, 2012). "Liberty Mutual tries to squirm out of every claim" (Bill Shaw, 2016). LMI uses the "Pure Premium" ratio (PPR) criteria (basically, the % of total premiums used to pay total claims) to measure LMI's profitability, to evaluate its claims adjusters and their bonuses. The less claims paid, the lower the PPR, the better their evaluations and job security, and the bigger their bonuses. You get the picture.
You pay insurance to protect you from catastrophic financial losses.You rightfully expect losses to be reliably, fairly, totally and quickly paid, less deductible. Insurance firms which delay, nitpick, obfuscate, use technicalities, low-ball, refuse to fully consider losses or justify their offers are crooks. Period.
All stated herein are my opinions, based on facts known to me and to best of my beliefs. No one at Sutties nor LMI has disputed anything to us we state herein and to others since 2019, including Sutties, BBB.