From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves: The Dark Side of Insurance (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Allstate Corp., fresh from fending off criticism about its response to policyholders affected by Hurricane Katrina, faces another potential storm, this one from an author [David J. Berardinelli] who claims the insurer is forcing policyholders to accept prompt but lower payouts or risk time-consuming and expensive litigation...The book [tells how and why] the nation´s second-largest home and auto insurer treats some policyholders with boxing gloves during their time of financial and personal duress, rather than the reassuringly familiar good hands highlighted in its advertising. ----Chicago Tribune, Author Throws a Punch at Allstate; May 3, 2006

It's the story Allstate doesn't want told. --BusinessWeek, In Tough Hands With Allstate, May 1, 2006

This book delves deep into the dark heart of the profit-boosting strategies that efficiency consulting firm McKinsey & Company cooked up with Allstate and the dramatic negative impact they have had on policyholders.... They created a plan for Allstate's claims operations known as the Claims Core Process Redesign or simply CCPR...To date, CCPR has generated between $15 to $25 billion in excess profits for Allstate's stockholders. It has also generated a national firestorm of bad faith litigation. This estimate is based on Allstate's annual statements showing an increase in surplus from $4.5 billion in 1992 before CCPR to a staggering $21.8 billion in 2004 with an additional $14 billion distributed in that time as shareholder dividends. Allstate has consistently refused to state how much extra profit CCPR generated. However, in 2004 Allstate claims its net income rose to a record $3.1 billion, despite 4 hurricanes in the Southeastern United States. --United Policy Holders

Product Description

We've all seen the name of AIG's CEO, Edward Liddy, far too often in the last few months. He recently attended a hearing before a congressional committee explaining why he thinks $165 million in federal bailout money from American taxpayers needs to go to AIG employees for bonuses. During Liddy's introduction, Chairman Kanjorski raised the issue about Liddy's former role as CEO of Allstate, and that company's denial of insurance contract claims. Later, one of the representatives asked why we as taxpayers are being forced to pay $165 million in bonuses on the basis that these were contracts. Liddy had no problem denying insurance contract claims which the policyholders made against his former company, Allstate. It might be surprising for the public to realize that Liddy made over $350 million in salary and stock options in his position at Allstate, in large part by implementing a plan to deny and otherwise underpay contract claims to Allstate policyholders. He did this with the assistance, of McKinsey & Co., the same consultants who created the Enron business plan. The public might also be interested to know that while running AIG, Liddy continues to be a major Allstate stockholder. Liddy was the President and CEO of Allstate Insurance Corp. from 1995 to 1999, then the Chairman of the Board until 2007. While at Allstate, he orchestrated across-the-board claim denial and underpayment systems created by McKinsey & Co., which led to David J. Berardinelli's investigative book From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves: The Dark Side of Insurance. According to this book, by the time he left, Mr. Liddy had already amassed Allstate stock worth over $250 million, with an additional payment at retirement of $50 million, and a retirement package worth over $70 million. You can also find out how, during his leadership at Allstate, Liddy oversaw that company's rejection of Hurricane Katrina home loss claims, how those costs were passed off on the American taxpayers through the National Flood Insurance Fund, and how Allstate and Liddy profited by passing off the losses to taxpayers. Find out for yourself why insurance claims are being improperly denied, delayed, and defended at trial. Read the story the insurance industry doesn't want you to know.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 189 pages
• Publisher: Trial Guides, LLC; 1st edition (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934833010
• ISBN-13: 978-1934833018
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #485,036 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What an eye opener!, December 16, 2008

By	D. Wohlk "ddw" (atlanta) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Do yourself a favor and buy this book if you want to get very mad at the insurance industry and All State Insurance most of all. If you read this and have All State I promise you will drop them! This is a shocking book and one that I could not put down. I read it cover to cover in one sitting.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Book Exposing What every Plaintiff's Lawyer Knows, August 22, 2009

By	Brenda Hollingsworth (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a personal injury lawyer in Ottawa, Ontario. Reading this book clarified for me that the road blocks I sometimes face in resolving serious accident claims for my clients are more more systemic that I believed. This is an easy read, written in plain English for the average consumer. I read it on the beach and actually couldn't put it down. I will be purchasing additional copies to provide to clients and to have in our waiting room. Injured Victim's Guide to Fair Compensation

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Important & Informative, October 31, 2009

By	R. G. Roberts (Winnetka, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I'm not aware of another book of this quality, insight or ease of reading on this subject. The author devoted years of tenacious detective work and fact-finding in order to obtain insights and previously confidential information about claims practices at Allstate Insurance. His findings are credible and fact-based. His intellectual curiosity and inferential thinking are very strong, yet his ability to piece together and tell the story in simple, easy-to-read and highly understandable language are even more impressive. This is a first rate job of analysis of an important topic. It focuses on the claims practices initially instituted by Allstate Insurance in its automobile business and subsequently spread throughout it's property and casualty business. The net effect was to greatly reduce settlements to Allstate's customers and claimants while growing the company's operating profits significantly. It both raises deep concerns about, and also helps to explain how anti-consumer practices of such great magnitude could have escaped the detection of regulatory and oversight agencies for so long.

Since the book was published, sufficient additional information has come to light through the availability of respected management consultant McKinsey & Company's work for Allstate that a follow-up version of this book would be even more valuable. Nonetheless this book is essential reading for individuals who believe that their insurance claims may not have been handled fairly by Allstate, or who may be considering the purchase of home, auto or other P&C insurance from Allstate. The practices perfected by Allstate, with McKinsey's assistance, were pioneered by McKinsey at State Farm and elsewhere prior to initiating work at Allstate. Therefore investors, regulators or consumers interested in any of these companies will find this book important reading. Additionally this is "must" reading for insurance professionals interested in keeping their industry "clean", attorneys interested in insurance law and claims practices, those interested in the preservation of corporate ethics and the rule and protection of the law in free market economics, as well as students of first class problem solving will all benefit from and appreciate this book. Overall it is an impressive, insightful, important and highly readable piece of work. I cannot vouchsafe that every single fact and interpretation is correct, but am sure that further refinement of the author's findings will occur as more data comes to the fore.