Assurant
Encyclopedia
Assurant is a specialty insurance
company headquartered in New York City
. Assurant’s four businesses provide a wide range of insurance products and related services, including creditor-placed homeowners insurance, manufactured housing homeowners insurance, credit insurance, individual health and small employer group health insurance, group dental insurance, group disability insurance, group life insurance, pre-funded funeral insurance, and extended warranties for electronics, appliances, and vehicles. The Fortune 500
company distributes its insurance products and services through various distribution channels.
RAMP is an application that works by analyzing historical data about the individual caller and the skill set of customer service representatives to optimize the routing of the call. As calls come in they are assigned to a customer service representative based on their expertise and past performance, improving customer response and retention rates.
In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court
upheld a lower court’s verdict and ordered Assurant Health (then known as "Fortis") to pay $10 million to policyholder Jerome Mitchell, who had contracted HIV
subsequent to getting an insurance policy through Assurant Health. In court proceedings, it was revealed that the company's policy was to target every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke ("rescind
") their policy. As in Mitchell’s case, their insurance policies often were canceled on incorrect information, flimsy evidence, or for no reason at all.
In February 2010, a Boulder, Colorado jury found that Assurant Health had breached its contract with Jennifer Latham, a 40-year-old mother of four who was severely injured in a hit-and-run accident, and awarded Latham $183,551 for medical bills and approximately 37.1 million dollars in punitive damages. This was described as "one of the largest bad-faith judgments in Colorado history".
Assurant disclosed in a conference call with investors on Feb.4, 2010 that the company would, “...pursue post-trial motions as well as an appeal.” Subsequently, during its second quarter 2010 conference call on July 29, 2010 the company indicated that, “The current quarter includes a $17.4 million after-tax benefit from the settlement of a previously disclosed Colorado lawsuit for less than the original judgment."
In March 2010, the US Supreme Court
rejected Assurant Health’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that awarded $10 million to a South Carolina
customer whose policy was cancelled by the company when he tested positive for HIV
.
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
company headquartered in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Assurant’s four businesses provide a wide range of insurance products and related services, including creditor-placed homeowners insurance, manufactured housing homeowners insurance, credit insurance, individual health and small employer group health insurance, group dental insurance, group disability insurance, group life insurance, pre-funded funeral insurance, and extended warranties for electronics, appliances, and vehicles. The Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
company distributes its insurance products and services through various distribution channels.
Operations
Assurant operates four main businesses:- Assurant Employee BenefitsAssurant Employee BenefitsAssurant Employee Benefits, a part of Assurant, Inc., is a provider of employee benefits insurance products. The company offers a wide range of employer-paid and employee-paid products tailor-made for small to mid-size businesses including disability, life and AD&D, dental and reinsurance...
offers group dental, disability, term life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment and vision plans to companies with fewer than 500 employees. The company also offers voluntary (employee-paid) dental, disability and term life products.
- Assurant Health provides individual, short-term health insurance and small employer group health insurance.
- Assurant Solutions develops, underwrites, and markets specialty insurance, extended service contracts and other risk management solutions in collaborative relationships with leading financial institutions, retailers, automobile dealers, utilities, funeral homes and other entities. Principal lines of business include debt protection administration, credit insurance, preneed life insurance, and warranties and extended service contracts on appliances, consumer electronics, automobiles, recreational vehicles and boats.
- Assurant Specialty Property develops, underwrite, market and administers specialty property and personal lines of insurance and also offers lender-placed hazard insurance and outsourcing services to mortgage companies, manufactured home builders and dealers, auto finance companies, property management companies, and managing general agents. In addition, the company also offers collateral protection programs for automobiles, manufactured housing insurance, residents insurance, homeowners, watercraft, motorcycle, motor home, federal flood, and farmowners.
Products and Services
In March 2010, Assurant Solutions and IBM unveiled a Real-Time Analytics Matching Platform (RAMP) to improve call center performance.RAMP is an application that works by analyzing historical data about the individual caller and the skill set of customer service representatives to optimize the routing of the call. As calls come in they are assigned to a customer service representative based on their expertise and past performance, improving customer response and retention rates.
Assurant in the community
Each of the Assurant businesses participate in local programs while regularly supporting nationally recognized charities such as United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Share Our Strength and the American Red Cross. The Assurant Foundation is a charitable trust started in 1982 to provide charitable grants to improve the quality of life in communities served.Health policy claim denials and cancellations
Assurant Health has been repeatedly found to cancel health policies for some customers that have serious medical conditions, and 12 states have criticized the firm for denying claims, with most of the states levying fines against Assurant.In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court
South Carolina Supreme Court
The South Carolina Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The court is composed of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices.-Selection of Justices:...
upheld a lower court’s verdict and ordered Assurant Health (then known as "Fortis") to pay $10 million to policyholder Jerome Mitchell, who had contracted HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
subsequent to getting an insurance policy through Assurant Health. In court proceedings, it was revealed that the company's policy was to target every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke ("rescind
Rescission
In contract law, rescission has been defined as the unmaking of a contract between parties. Rescission is the unwinding of a transaction. This is done to bring the parties, as far as possible, back to the position in which they were before they entered into a contract .-In court:Rescission is an...
") their policy. As in Mitchell’s case, their insurance policies often were canceled on incorrect information, flimsy evidence, or for no reason at all.
In February 2010, a Boulder, Colorado jury found that Assurant Health had breached its contract with Jennifer Latham, a 40-year-old mother of four who was severely injured in a hit-and-run accident, and awarded Latham $183,551 for medical bills and approximately 37.1 million dollars in punitive damages. This was described as "one of the largest bad-faith judgments in Colorado history".
Assurant disclosed in a conference call with investors on Feb.4, 2010 that the company would, “...pursue post-trial motions as well as an appeal.” Subsequently, during its second quarter 2010 conference call on July 29, 2010 the company indicated that, “The current quarter includes a $17.4 million after-tax benefit from the settlement of a previously disclosed Colorado lawsuit for less than the original judgment."
In March 2010, the US Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
rejected Assurant Health’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that awarded $10 million to a South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
customer whose policy was cancelled by the company when he tested positive for HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
.