3 Ways Homeowners Hit by Disasters Are Abused by Their Insurers

Palm Beach Garden, Fla., Oct. 14, 2025 – Based on an analysis of official data, Weiss Ratings, the nation’s only independent rating agency covering insurance companies, reported today that homeowners hit by wildfires and storms have often been abused by their insurance companies in at least three ways.

First, insurers in disaster-prone states tend to deny homeowner claims more aggressively than those in most other states.

Second, insurers in those same states delay claims payments most frequently.  

And third, they are also among those that abandon the highest percentage of their customers by failing to renew their policies. 

“On top of the devastating impact of natural disasters on homeowners,” said Weiss Ratings founder Dr. Martin D. Weiss, “this one-two-three punch by their insurance companies is unprecedented and unconscionable.” 

In addition, there have been widespread reports that insurers often slash to the bone legitimate damage estimates submitted by on-site adjusters.

Some observers might believe these trends are “unavoidable” due to underwriting losses that many insurers have suffered. But that logic doesn’t hold up in the face of company data showing that investment profits have almost always been, and continue to be, many times larger than underwriting losses.

The Weiss study ranked all states based on three metrics compiled for each state by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for 2024 — the percentage of (1) claims denied (closed without payment), (2) claims payments delayed beyond 60 days, and (3) policies not renewed by the insurer. 

Weiss found that all 15 states that had the worst average ranking on these scores were also among those in the most severe disaster-prone areas. These include:

1. Florida (worst in the nation)
2. California (second worst)
3. Louisiana
4. Texas
5. Nevada
6. Washington
7. Alaska
8. Hawaii
9. Arizona
10. Kentucky
11. Mississippi
12. Virginia
13. Utah
14. Alabama
15. Oregon

Florida is at the top of the list of insurance company abuses because it ranks worst in the nation for the highest percentage of denials (40.3%), ranks fourth highest in the percentage of claims payments delayed over 60 days (32.8%), and again, worst for non-renewal of policies (3.3%).

California is second on the list, ranking as the third worst for claims denials (34.9%), third for delays (33.8% of policies) and second for non-renewals (3.2%).

Louisiana is the third worst for consumer abuses due to rankings of 6, 13 and 4, respectively.

Alaska is second worst for both denials and delays, but its average rank is not quite as bad (#7), thanks to relatively better performance on renewals.

Source: Weiss Ratings. Data: NAIC’s Market Conduct Annual Statement (MCAS). The NAIC does not release results on each insurer’s MCAS data. Therefore, separate from this study, in order to compare insurers’ performance regarding denials, Weiss draws from their individual statutory reports and applies selection criteria to help identify their business in each state. This may result in slightly different state percentages but does not change the trend or conclusions. 

The abuses by insurers in states that have escaped some of the nation’s worst disasters, such as Utah, Alabama and Oregon, are not as alarming, but still a cause for serious concern. Experts agree that no one wants to see them follow in the footsteps of Florida or California. 

Weiss warned: “When asked by reporters, the knee-jerk reaction of many insurance company executives is often to blame their own customers for filing ‘fraudulent’ claims or to complain that the states don’t approve ‘big enough’ rate increases. However, they’re unable to explain why abuses have increased markedly over the years or why some companies (large and small) have been able to do right for their customers despite everything. Nor do they like to talk about their investment gains from premium money that are usually many times larger than underwriting losses.” 

For an expanded list of states of concern now or in the not-too-distant future, consumers can go here. Plus, they can look up the denial rate of their home insurance company in this table.  

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About Weiss Ratings: Weiss rates 53,000 institutions and investments, including safety ratings on insurers, banks and credit unions, as well as investment ratings on stocks, ETFs, mutual funds and cryptocurrencies. Since its founding in 1971, Weiss Ratings has never accepted any form of payment from rated entities for its ratings. All Weiss insurance company ratings are available at https://weissratings.com/en/insurance.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the Weiss ratings of U.S. life and health insurers outperformed those of A.M. Best by 3-to-1 in warning of future financial difficulties, while also greatly outperforming those of Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The New York Times reported that Weiss “was the first to warn of the dangers and say so unambiguously.” Barron's called Weiss Ratings “the leader in identifying vulnerable companies.”