Grong v. Farmers Insurance

Mike Abourezk’s investigation of Farmers Insurance led to 1.75 million in fines against the insurance company. The Departments of Insurance in North Dakota and California followed up on information we uncovered during the investigation of this case. In 2006, the California Insurance Commissioner fined Farmer’s one million dollars. The Commissioner said “This fine should send a message to all companies that this Department will not tolerate mistreatment of policyholders.”

A few months later, in 2007, The North Dakota Commissioner found that when handling auto claims, Farmers Insurance had “systemic claims handling practices that were at best unfair and at worst, abusive to the policyholder… The exam report describes incentive programs and slogans, such as the ‘Bring Back a Billion’ campaign, which encouraged employees to work to rebuild surplus and utilized ‘pledges’ that employees signed. Also detailed are company action plans that set goals that were unfair and arbitrary.