Based on my experience in managing disability claims in 2025, the top three unfair insurance companies were:
- New York Life
- The Hartford
- Prudential
It seemed to me that New York Life didn’t have a clue when it came to managing disability claims. Lost paperwork, poor customer service, calls dropped, missing claims handlers, you name it New York Life did it. What I found particularly interesting was that those involved with claims didn’t seem to know about ERISA and were shocked when I held them to standards. NYL is also a very untimely insurance company, and therefore receives very poor marks from me.
The Hartford always was an insurance company dedicated to reviewing claims to deny rather than to pay. At one time The Hartford had three claims handlers associated with each claim, one of which was a surveillance expert.It is also very hard to contact, and its communication system is so convoluted, it may take a week to contact anyone who knows what’s going on with claims.
Finally, Prudential still engages in claims review practices that tip over into unfair claims review, such as allowing RNs to review medical information and make decisions to deny millions of dollars in financial claim reserves.
It’s for this reason that I give the number one STICK award for 2025 to New York Life. You may notice that I haven’t mentioned Unum, which is a good thing.
