Vice President Actuary - Pricing and Product Analytics

Washington OIC fines USAA and Allstate for claims handling violations. Washington Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer has fined USAA and Allstate $230,000 for claims handling violations and other unfair practices, according to a press release from the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC). USAA was fined $140,000 for unfair or deceptive acts or practices in how it handled auto claims. Allstate was fined for claims handling violations and for not following the OIC's premium change transparency rule. The OIC opened a market continuum action on June 18, 2024, after a market analysis identified a trend in private passenger automobile claims handling violations, the USAA consent order states. It adds that the OIC received 445 complaints between April 2019 and April 2024. Forty-three complaints found unfair claims settlement practices. Non-compliance with required communication standards was listed in 36 of the complaints. The OIC reviewed 125 complaints and found one or more potential claims handling violations in 31 USAA auto claims. In 2024, the OIC asked USAA for a detailed description of how and why each claim handling error occurred, a timeline of events showing how the company remediated the errors, and any plans to remediate the errors going forward. USAA agreed to 19 of the 31 claims, the consent order states. A remediation outlined by USAA included coaching adjusters by their managers and an updated process for loss of use evaluations. The 19 claims validated by USAA in February 2025 include: * * 11 claims where USAA failed to acknowledge and act reasonably promptly upon communication of the claims. * 11 claims where USAA failed to acknowledge pertinent communications within 10 working days. * Four claims where USAA failed to complete its investigation within 30 days. * 11 claims where USAA failed to adopt and implement reasonable standards for prompt investigation. * Five claims where USAA refused to pay claims without conducting a reasonable investigation. * One claim where USAA failed to include all applicable government taxes and fees. * One claim where USAA failed to notify the first party claimant that it needed more time to determine whether the claim should be accepted or denied. The OIC gives descriptions of some of the claims. This includes the OIC receiving a consumer complaint that USAA incorrectly valued their equipment trailer by using alternative brands to find comparable values after the loss. After the OIC contacted USAA, the consumer was paid an updated $10,511 insurer-retained total loss settlement. After another 2024 consumer complaint that confirmed applicable state, county, and municipal taxes were not included in an original valuation, the OIC asked USAA to review all total loss settlements since April 2022. USAA responded in June that it had reviewed 7,598 total loss statements and identified 216 claims where they did not pay taxes or fees, according to the consent order. It adds that the insurance company stated it would pay the taxes and fees owed within the next 60 days. Two months later, the OIC requested additional information from USAA. The company conducted a manual review of total loss data and determined sales tax was not paid in 101 claims and fees were not paid in 153 claims, for a total of 254 claims. The order states that USAA paid 45 total loss claims $68,000 for owed sales tax and another 114 claims $20,000 for owed fees. Allstate was fined $90,000 by the OIC. A consent order for Allstate states the OIC opened a continuum action in June 2024 due to a high number of complaints from January 2024 through June 2024 related to Allstate's claims handling. The OIC asked Allstate to provide a database of claims for the time period. The database included 3,040 claims, of which OIC randomly selected 108 for review. The review found nine claims, including 16 claims handling violations, the order states. The violations include: * * One claim where Allstate misrepresented pertinent facts when it issued a claim payment for significantly less than its own estimate. * Three claims where Allstate failed to acknowledge and act reasonably promptly upon communications related to claims. * Eight claims where Allstate failed to adopt and implement reasonable standards for processing and payment of claims after the obligation to pay was established. This includes the company delaying payment by several weeks or several months after it had determined the loss amount. * Two claims where Allstate failed to complete its investigation in a timely manner. Allstate validated the OIC findings in May 2025, the consent order states. The OIC found during its review that Allstate's homeowners policy declaration pages between April 2024 and April 2025 were missing mandatory language. The information was missing from more than 86,705 declaration pages. This included 86,136 policies with a premium increase, 545 policies with a premium decrease, and 24 policies with no premium change. The company told the OIC that it began including the language on renewal policies starting April 23, 2025. It also validated the OIC's findings in May 2025. "We take our role as a consumer protection agency seriously," Kuderer said in the press release. "These orders, and the actions we've taken against insurers for failing to meet their obligations to policyholders when processing their claims, are a testament to that work." The release adds that the OIC has issued $495,200 in fines for violations of insurance laws from April through August. The changes, effective Oct. 18, are extensive and include tightening timelines, along with estimating and short-payment disclosures. Image. Photo of the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner logo.

IBD's seventh annual survey of The Most Trusted Financial Companies. (C) Lorena Lozano Mansilla) * ANNE STANLEY * Updated 09:00 AM ET 09/25/2026 American consumers' confidence in the financial companies they do business with - their investment firms, banks, credit card and insurance companies - has been surprisingly resilient over the past year. And that's noteworthy in light of soaring fuel and food prices, interest-rate uncertainty and geopolitical tensions. This is borne out in Investor's Business Daily's seventh annual report on the Most Trusted Financial Companies. Its independent customer survey, co-branded with MarketWatch, shows that over the past four years, the highest IBD Trust Index scores remain in the top quartile for the companies customers trust the most. Here's How To Use IBD's Proprietary Ratings To Find The Next Winning Stock In 2026, IBD made major updates to all of its proprietary stock ratings. Here's the lowdown on how the ratings have changed and how to best use them in your investing practice. Here's How To Use IBD's Proprietary Ratings To Find The Next Winning Stock See All Videos This year, the company that tops the IBD list of the 30 Most Trusted Financial Companies is Charles Schwab (SCHW) - specifically, Schwab's ETF/funds division. Two other Schwab divisions, Schwab Private Client and Schwab's online brokerage, also made IBD's 2026 list of the 30 Most Trusted Financial Companies. Other repeat winners and well-known financial firms that made the top 10 on its list are New York Life, the JPMorgan Funds unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), USAA, the E-Trade unit of Morgan Stanley (MS), Prudential (PRU), Fidelity Investments and American Express (AXP). Which Financial Companies to trust with your money? Americans have faced more challenges to their finances in 2026, including stubbornly high prices, rising mortgage rates and uncertainty over tariffs and interest rates. These have been offset by positive stock market performance and rising 401(k) balances. But which companies do consumers and investors actually trust with their hard-earned money? And if you're shopping for financial services, what do you need to know? Investor's Business Daily's Most Trusted Financial Companies special report aims to provide crucial information on trust, based on IBD's survey of the companies' own customers. Consumers can see in this report how financial companies measure up to customer expectations on safety, service and quality of products. And how those firms measure up against each other. Its 2026 list of the 30 Most Trusted Financial Companies draws on a customer survey that rated financial companies on the trust attributes most important to consumers. When it comes to trust, "There's nothing that matters more when you deal with a client's money and their financial futures," said Jonathan Craig, head of retail investing at Charles Schwab. Financial Companies' security is critical. In this year's survey, respondents ranked their financial companies' "commitment to protecting privacy and security of personal data" as the most important attribute, topping "financial soundness." The latter was the most important attribute in its 2025 survey. Privacy and security are vital to financial companies' success. This is especially true as more financial tools become AI-enabled. The American College, in its recent AI and Trust survey, says, "Trust alone is not enough to drive the use of AI-enabled financial tools and that factors such as security perceptions, ease of use, and usefulness play a critical role." E-Trade, which topped the online broker category in this year's customer-driven survey, places a strong emphasis on data security and customer support. A key to earning trust from clients is to build strong relationships with them and help them achieve their financial goals, said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade. "A big part of that is providing the best possible support for our clients," said Larkin. "It's critical that clients know their assets are safe and their private information and trading activities are confidential and protected." From Investing And insurance to banks and Credit Cards. For IBD's list of the Most Trusted Financial Companies in 2026, Investor’s Business Daily, LLC asked more than 8,000 survey participants about how they judged the key attributes of the financial companies they do business with. The survey was conducted from March to July by IBD's polling partner, Magid. Read more about the survey methodology. There were again eight categories of companies in this year's survey: ETF/fund companies, online brokers, wealth managers, credit card companies, banks, and life, home and auto insurers. IBD newsletters. Get exclusive IBD analysis and actionable news daily. Financial Companies vie for eight trust attributes. Its survey covered eight areas of trust. The attributes for the 2026 IBD Most Trusted Financial Companies survey were privacy and security, financial soundness, fair prices and fees, quality of products and services, ethical business practices and values, customer service, sensitivity and responsiveness to customer needs and confidence in company management. Privacy and security received the highest weight (20%) in its study, topping its list of the most critical trust factors for financial companies. Financially sound/secure took the second spot (17%), followed by fair prices and fees (14.5%). More than 90% of survey respondents said trust was "very important" in their relationships with financial firms. Consumers also care about financial soundness and customer service, the survey said. American Express topped the credit card category. Its customers lauded the company for reliability and consistency. "We've been around for 175 years," said Lisa Kalhans, AmEx's executive vice president, U.S. consumer proprietary products, in an interview with IBD. "We've never deviated from our principles and our formula has not changed." Read Its Business Category Stories On The 2026 Most Trusted Financial Companies In Insurance, Credit Cards, Investing And Banking. The top 10 on its most-trusted list. Financial services firms have faced both internal and external challenges garnering the trust of their customers. Those that focus on the attributes in its 2026 survey, especially security and privacy, financial soundness and fair prices and fees, should be recognized for their successes. These companies' divisions make the top 10, ranked according to their IBD Trust Index score. * Schwab, ETF/fund companies * New York Life, life insurance * Schwab Private Client, wealth management * JPMorgan Funds, ETF/fund companies * USAA, auto insurance * E-Trade, online brokers * USAA, home insurance * American Express, credit cards * Prudential, life insurance * Fidelity, online brokers New rating on customer satisfaction. In a new aspect of its survey, IBD this year asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with the financial companies with which they do business. Overall, customers gave these companies a higher range of scores for satisfaction than for trustworthiness. For the 30 highest scoring companies according to customer satisfaction, scores ranged from 84 to 93 out of 100, indicating a high level of satisfaction. The 10 companies with the highest customer satisfaction ratings are: * Schwab Private Client, wealth management * JP Morgan Funds, ETF/fund companies * Prudential, life insurance * New York Life, life insurance * Fidelity, wealth management * USAA, home insurance * Schwab, ETF/fund companies * Vanguard, ETF/fund companies * USAA, auto insurance * Farmers, home insurance The total number of respondents for the 2026 Most Trusted Financial Companies survey was 8,026. For all categories, Investor’s Business Daily, LLC required at least 125 respondents to rate a company for it to be included in its ranking. Companies are ranked by their IBD Trust Index score, using the highest weighted attribute, privacy and security of personal data, to break any ties. IBD's special reports are objective and data-based. This independent special report is produced by the IBD editorial team. There is no sponsored content, nor are there any commission links. A company cannot apply to get on this list, and there are no fees. The Most Trusted Financial Companies logo and accolades are available for licensing through Investor's Business Daily's partner, The YGS Group, by email at [email protected] or at 800-290-5460. YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

Fuel to Serve: The mission starts at the meal. What service members eat affects their health, finances, and readiness. USAA and the Robert Irvine Foundation are doing something about it. Published Sep 23, 2026 6:00 AM PDT Recently, Army leaders noticed a troubling trend: service members were choosing fast food over on-base dining. At first glance, it looked like a simple food preference. It wasn't. Every meal bought off base added pressure to the household budget. Every poor nutritional choice chipped away at physical and mental health. And over time, those everyday realities shaped something much larger: military readiness. It's a reminder that the challenges facing military families rarely exist in isolation. That insight is central to Honor Through Action(R), a national movement founded by USAA to strengthen military family well-being, financial security, and meaningful career opportunities for military families over five years via a $500 million commitment. Through strategic philanthropy, policy advocacy, and cross-sector partnerships, Honor Through Action creates lasting change for military families. Addressing the whole person and the whole family means addressing something as fundamental as food. "Military families shouldn't have to choose between what's affordable and what's healthy. When service members and their families have reliable access to nutritious food, the benefits extend far beyond the dinner table. It reduces financial strain, supports overall well-being, and helps ensure our military community has what it needs to thrive," said Lindsey O'Neill, chief communications and public affairs officer at USAA. The scale is national: in a recent survey from the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN), 41.2% of military families reported low or very low food security, rising to 74% among junior enlisted families (E1-E3). Robert Irvine is a chef, longtime military champion, and catalyst for change. He has spent years volunteering his time working alongside Army leaders to show what is possible when the dining experience is built around the people it serves. That work is the foundation of Fuel to Serve, a new initiative USAA is proud to launch with the Robert Irvine Foundation. "The military's greatest asset isn't equipment - it's people. And you build better people through better nutrition. We're already proving it: when soldiers eat well, they sleep better, perform better, feel better. Readiness starts at the table," Irvine said. Together, USAA and the Robert Irvine Foundation will expand these solutions nationwide, serving active-duty families and veterans and building a coalition of philanthropic leaders, policymakers, and corporate allies united around one goal: stronger military families. Because sometimes lasting change starts with something as simple as a good meal.