AIG Homeowners Insurance Review

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AIG Homeowners Insurance

OVERALL

7.0

THE GOOD

Industry-leading coverage options

Offers cash settlement claims

Complimentary wildfire or hurricane service

THE BAD

You can't buy standalone homeowners insurance

No online application

Subpar claims service ratings

THE BOTTOM LINE

American International Group Inc., better known as AIG, has been at the forefront of financial protection for almost a century, offering everything from financial planning to risk management to life insurance while also featuring one of the largest property insurance groups in the country. Their personal lines division – AIG Private Client Group – has only been around about two decades but has quickly become the go-to insurer for high-net worth homeowners who want highly personalized coverage.

Cost

4.5

Confidence

8.3

Customer ratings

7.3

Policy options

9.0

Customer experience

6.3

AIG COMPANY SPOTLIGHT

2 of 5

J.D. Power Rating

A trusted customer satisfaction and product quality research agency

A-

BBB Rating

A nonprofit organization focusing on marketplace trust and product quality

A

A.M. Best

100-year-old U.S. credit rating agency focused on the insurance industry

The Bottom Line

AIG falls into the small but distinguished "premier" insurance company category, primarily servicing high-value homes with expensive valuables and assets. AIG home insurance policies feature a number of added perks, such as a private firefighting service if you live in a wildfire-prone area and a complimentary home consultation service for homes built before 1945. However, AIG struggles where it matters most – the insurance claims category – as they don’t fare too well in J.D. Power’s 2019 Property Claims Satisfaction Study. Considering that AIG is a premier carrier and feature policies with some of the highest rates in the industry, the low marks for customer satisfaction are a red flag.

The Details

The Good

Industry-leading coverage options. AIG features one of the more robust homeowners insurance policies we've reviewed, insuring your home and contents with enhanced rebuild and personal property coverages, multiple additional coverages, and a slew of policy perks like high deductible options, cash settlement options, and a personal firefighter service.

Offers cash settlement claims. If your home incurs a total loss, you can opt to receive a cash settlement up to the coverage limit rather than rebuild the home on site.

Complimentary wildfire or hurricane service. AIG policyholders with homes in select high-risk areas are also provided with complimentary wildfire and hurricane mitigation and protection services. The services provide at-home consultation, monitoring and mitigation for folks in affected areas. *

The Bad

You can't buy standalone homeowners insurance. In most cases, in order to get homeowners insurance with AIG, they generally require that you also get auto insurance, excess liability, private collections, or some other type of coverage available through AIG Private Client. They generally won't do standalone homeowners insurance.

No online application. AIG also loses points for their lack of an online application, potentially at the inconvenience of homeowners simply looking for a quick quote for the sake of comparison.

Subpar claims service ratings. AIG scored a 2 out of 5 possible points in J.D. Power's 2019 Home Insurance Claims Study. Respondents were particularly unsatisfied with AIG's first notice of loss (the initial claim reporting process) and the settlement (the reimbusement amount for a claim). However, AIG scored a perfect 5 out of 5 for the repair process.

Cost

4.5

The price of homeowners insurance can vary considerably from location to location. Multiple factors, including your ZIP code and and natural disaster risk, your home's condition and age, and your credit score all impact how much you'll pay in monthly or annual premiums.

AIG customers pay around nearly twice as much as the average customer, with a $3,564 average annual premium according to Policygenius data.

Discounts

A great way to keep those expensive homeowners insurance costs down with AIG is to take advantage of their generous discount opportunities.

Some common discounts include protective devices discounts, claims-free discounts, and new home-buyer discounts. AIG offers all of the standard discounts as well as a companion discount if you get more than one property insurance policy with AIG.

• Companion policy discount - In some states, you can see a discount on your premiums when you combine your auto, excess liability, or excess flood policy under AIG; also known as a multi-policy or bundling discount

• New home discount - Save up to 10% if your home is less than 10 years old

• Renovated house discount - Save up to 10% if your home has been renovated in the last 10 years; renovations must include plumbing, heating, and electrical systems upgrades and does not apply to cosmetic upgrades

• Guarded/gated community discount - Depending on where you live, a 5% or 10% discount may be available if you live in a gated or guarded community

• Central station burglar alarm discount - Save 5% if you have a burglar alarm that alerts authorities

• Central station fire alarm discount - Save 5% if your home is equipped with a fire alarm that alerts authorities

• Residential sprinkler system discount - A 5% discount is available to you if part of your home is fitted with a sprinkler system; a 10% discount is available if your entire home is fitted with a sprinkler system

• Superior protection discount - Save up to 10% if you have any combination of the following apply to your home: smart home devices, 24/7 security guard, a perimeter gate, a full-time caretaker, or a permanently installed backup generator

Confidence

8.3

Homeowners insurance protects your most important financial assets, so you'll want to be sure you're insuring your home, your personal possessions, and other assets with a company that will be able to pay out your claim in the event of a disaster. AIG has been around for a little over 100 years and has well-established financial strength with the top insurance rating agencies in the world. With AIG, you can insure your home with confidence.

• Year founded: 1919

• Standard & Poor's rating: A+

• Moody's rating: A2

• A.M. Best rating: A

Standard & Poor's measures companies' creditworthiness and is used primarily by financial investors and other market stakeholders. S&P is also valuable in measuring the long-term financial stability of insurance companies. A AAA rating is the highest issuer credit rating assigned by S&P. AIG's A+ rating puts them in the top tier of insurance companies in terms of financial confidence.

Moody's is very similar to Standard & Poors, except rather than measuring a companies ability to remain financial stable and creditworthy, Moody's measures what the expected losses would be if a company were to go into default. It's particularly valuable in analyzing the value of stocks and bonds with certain companies. A AAA rating is the highest possible score you can receive from Moody's. AIG's A2 rating gives them an "upper-medium" investment grade designation with Moody's.

A.M. Best is the most reliable credit-rating tool insureds can use to gauge the financial health of a particular company. Unlike S&P and Moody's, A.M. Best is focused exclusively on the insurance marketplace. A good score with A.M. Best means a company is more likely to fulfill their financial obligation to you when it comes time to file a claim. With a score of A, AIG has the third highest rating a company can receive with A.M. Best.

Customer ratings

7.3

It's important to know what experts think about homeowners insurance companies - but it's also good to know what actual customers and consumer sentiment sites are saying, too.

AIG has above average customer ratings across the board. While they falter in some areas, like J.D. Power's overall satisfaction score or the NAIC's complaint index, keep in mind their large customer base and the fact that a vast majority of customers are largely satisfied.

• J.D. Power: 2 / 5

• BBB: A-

• Consumer Affairs: 3.5 / 5

• Consumers Advocate: 4.9 / 5

• NAIC complaint index: 0.11

J.D. Power provides studies that rate insurance companies across policy offerings, price, clarity of billing and policy information, interaction, and claims. An overall satisfaction score, "based on how customers view every experience of their experience with homeowners insurance providers," is reflected here and used for our ranking.

The Better Business Bureau ranks companies across a large swath of criteria. While consumers can submit ratings to the BBB, these scores are not taken into account in their rating, although tangential metrics that take into account customer experience are included.

Consumer Affairs is a platform that lets consumers directly rate customers, while Consumers Advocate rates companies based on stability, reputation, and policy coverage.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners tracks the number of complaints submitted to state insurance departments with their national complain index. A score of 1 is the baseline average, and a score of 0 means there weren't enough complaints to count.

Policy options

9.0

AIG offers a single policy – their Private Client Group package – and if you have a whole lot of stuff worth a whole lot of money, this policy may be right for you. The Private Client Group package has all the primary coverage you’ll find in a standard policy – dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss-of-use, liability, and medical payments coverage – but with higher limits of liability and more flexible loss-settlement provisions than you’d find in a standard carrier policy.

Take your policy’s dwelling and other structures coverage, for instance. Under a standard carrier policy, you’d typically have the option of replacement or extended replacement cost coverage of 25% or 50% for your home. That means they’ll reimburse you up to 50% more than your home’s dwelling limit in the event that construction costs skyrocket, which is great, but what if the damage was caused by a natural disaster that causes construction costs to double, or even triple? That’s where AIG’s guaranteed replacement cost coverage comes into play.

AIG Private Client Coverage

Primary coverage features

• All-risk coverage for your home, other structures, and personal property

• Extended replacement cost home and other structures coverage of 50% in Florida, Hawaii, and South Carolina, and 100% in California

• Guaranteed replacement cost coverage for your home and other structures in most other states

• Deductibles up to $100,000

• Option for a cash loss-settlement reimbursement instead of a rebuild or replacement reimbursement for your home, other structures, and contents

• Unlimited loss-of-use coverage

• Deductible is waived if your deductible is $25,000 or less and your loss is greater than $50,000

Additional coverage perks

• Proactive loss-prevention services if you live in a wildfire or hurricane-prone area

• Unlimited building ordinance or law coverage

• Covers food spoilage with $250 deductible

• Unlimited water backup coverage with no deductible or sublimits

• Up to $100,000 in loss-assessment coverage

• Covers damage caused by pets

• Landscaping coverage of up to 5% of your dwelling limit and $5,000 sublimit for any single tree, shrub, or plant

• Guests and domestic staffs’ personal property is covered if damaged by a covered loss

• Lock-replacement coverage

• $25,000 business property coverage

• Optional equipment-breakdown coverage

• Optional green-rebuilding cost coverage

High sublimits for valuables

• $2,500 sublimit for stolen money, including coins and medals

• $5,000 sublimit for lost, misplaced or stolen securities, stamps, jewelry, furs

• $5,000 sublimit for watercraft, guns, and trailers

• $10,000 sublimit for lost, misplaced, or stolen silverware

• $50,000 sublimit for breakage of fragile items

• $50,000 sublimit for grave markers and mausoleums

Note: The information above represents potential policy options and may not be available for every applicant. Speak to a licensed expert for a personalized look at your coverage options.

Customer experience

6.3

AIG home insurance is available anywhere in the country with agents and claims servicing readily available for insureds. However, AIG doesn't have an online application or quick-quote option.

State availability

AIG homeowners insurance is available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Digital tools

• Web policy viewer

• Web mobile claims servicing

The application

AIG, like Chubb and other premier carriers, doesn’t offer an online or quick-quoting option. Once you get to the product page, you “request a review,” where you input basic personal information like your name and ZIP code, and an independent agent contacts you shortly thereafter to run a quote and see if AIG is right for you.

Since their product is costly, tailored for expensive homes, and robust, AIG may feel their value is better explained over the phone or in person as opposed to an online quote that you can use to compare to cheaper carriers.

Ease of claims

AIG appears to be lagging a little bit in the claims department. Their 2018 claims satisfaction rating with J.D. Power was a 2 out of 5, which is below industry average. That may not be a huge deal if we’re talking about a company with lower rates, like State Farm, but AIG is a premier carrier with high rates, so the low scores are a cause for concern.

If you need to submit a homeowners insurance claim with AIG, the claims page on their website instructs you to either contact your local independent agent or their company hotline if you need immediate assistance.

Additional claims service

• Wildfire Protection Unit

• Hurricane Protection Unit

• Rebuild and repairs consultations

Claim satisfaction

AIG has below average claims satisfaction rating (2 out of 5) with J.D. Power.

Payment options

• Online bill payment

• Automatic bank account payments

• Automatic payment card payments

• Electronic funds transfer (EFT)

Policygenius offers insurance policies from many of the nation's top insurers, who pay us a commission for our services. However, all editorial choices are made independently.