Well AM Best finally made up their mind. We knew this was coming. But it may not be over. Personal Lines resulst are marginal, they have not fully taken the hit of old Work Comp reserves, and they still write contractors in Illinois aggressively. West Bend just isn’t going to learn. And what is this Argent thing? Jump in the fray of the volatile world of Work Comp, when you are in the middle of troubles? not smart.
This came as a bit of a surprise given how aggressive they are in the marketplace. They are writing many contractors here in IL as well as daycares and their other NSI programs. I wonder how their competitors Auto Owners and Erie will stack up now…
Our agency is taking a wait and see approach. Enough of these companies that are hiding behind financial games. AM BEST doesn’t fool around. WB is on the shelf in our agency. Not growing until we see some stability.
here’s the deal. My opinion is that WB has been hiding from the truth for a long time. They had a big brand new building that they had to pay for. They were attracting a lot of Wisconsin high-priced talent. They were trying to give Tony a grand send-off. And all the time they were ignoring the problems at their foundation. Problems that won’t go away. Because we have this thing in insurance called the tail. That’s right, the tail. And the tail that WB has for a small company is HUGE. Their reinsurance companies will start to wise up and will start to take drastic increases on treaties. AM BEST FINALLY caught up to them. They knew the implications were negative. They finally pulled the trigger. I would not be suprised if we found WB sitting at A- in 2 years. They need to wake up. Get out of Illinois construction, and clean up their pricing and their underwriting. Nobody needs a hardening market more than West Bend. They can’t run and hide from the tail much longer.
That’s my prediction for West Bend in 2 years. They’re still playing a shell game with underwriting and reserves, not fully taken. proceed with caution.
this company SUCKS. i’m not a financial person. i’m just a regular guy.. but they dont live up to there end of the bargain when it comes to paying claims. they will gladly take your money every month to give you a false sense of security.. was a customer 6 years with no claims.. my house was burglarized and robbed.. i needed my insurance company to give me piece of mind.. too have my back.. they FAILED at every level…
Well AM Best finally made up their mind. We knew this was coming. But it may not be over. Personal Lines resulst are marginal, they have not fully taken the hit of old Work Comp reserves, and they still write contractors in Illinois aggressively. West Bend just isn’t going to learn. And what is this Argent thing? Jump in the fray of the volatile world of Work Comp, when you are in the middle of troubles? not smart.
This came as a bit of a surprise given how aggressive they are in the marketplace. They are writing many contractors here in IL as well as daycares and their other NSI programs. I wonder how their competitors Auto Owners and Erie will stack up now…
They’re writing all my stuff in Illinois, and giving it away! I don’t see them slowing down any becuase of this?
Our agency is taking a wait and see approach. Enough of these companies that are hiding behind financial games. AM BEST doesn’t fool around. WB is on the shelf in our agency. Not growing until we see some stability.
here’s the deal. My opinion is that WB has been hiding from the truth for a long time. They had a big brand new building that they had to pay for. They were attracting a lot of Wisconsin high-priced talent. They were trying to give Tony a grand send-off. And all the time they were ignoring the problems at their foundation. Problems that won’t go away. Because we have this thing in insurance called the tail. That’s right, the tail. And the tail that WB has for a small company is HUGE. Their reinsurance companies will start to wise up and will start to take drastic increases on treaties. AM BEST FINALLY caught up to them. They knew the implications were negative. They finally pulled the trigger. I would not be suprised if we found WB sitting at A- in 2 years. They need to wake up. Get out of Illinois construction, and clean up their pricing and their underwriting. Nobody needs a hardening market more than West Bend. They can’t run and hide from the tail much longer.
That’s my prediction for West Bend in 2 years. They’re still playing a shell game with underwriting and reserves, not fully taken. proceed with caution.
this company SUCKS. i’m not a financial person. i’m just a regular guy.. but they dont live up to there end of the bargain when it comes to paying claims. they will gladly take your money every month to give you a false sense of security.. was a customer 6 years with no claims.. my house was burglarized and robbed.. i needed my insurance company to give me piece of mind.. too have my back.. they FAILED at every level…