Ironically, Potter spent years selling Unum disability policies as part of a financial services package. Potter said, "People need safety and that's what I thought I was selling them. But here I am with all my knowledge of insurance, and I couldn't make it work for me." Former employees are on record saying that Unum ordered them to deny claims to meet cost savings goals.
AIG, the nation's largest insurance carrier with assets valued at over a trillion dollars, ranks third on the AAJ's Ten Worst List. The company has a reputation for being extremely stingy in paying out claims. According to AAJ, "Former AIG claims supervisors have alleged in litigation that the company used all manner of tricks to deny or delay claims, including locking checks in a safe until claimants complained, delaying payment of attorneys' fees until they were a year old, disposing of important correspondence during routine 'pizza parties,' and routinely fighting claimants for years in court over mundane claims." Numerous other tactics are described in the report, including price-gouging strategies developed to cash in on the tragedies brought about by Hurricane Katrina and the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The report is replete with documentation about the very disturbing practices of some of America's best known insurance companies. These companies built their businesses by cultivating the public's trust. Now, however, that trust is being betrayed as the companies put profits over their obligations to policy holders.
People in quest of a just society should decry business practices that are rooted in fraud or trickery or deceit. The doctrine of caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware") does not justify lying, cheating, or dissembling. And certainly those who call themselves Christians cannot justify such practices. The writer of Proverbs warns against unscrupulous conduct: "A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil…." (Proverbs 6:12-15 ESV) His fate, the writer warns, will be sudden "calamity" (Proverbs 6:15 ESV), for the Lord hates and finds abominable "a lying tongue," "a heart that devises wicked plans," and "a false witness who breathes out lies." (Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV)
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther admonished his parishioners, "Everyone should conduct his trade, craft and business in such a way that he overcharges no one, cheats no one with false wares, is satisfied with a fair profit, and gives people something worthwhile for their penny." How different America's insurance industry would look today if its CEO's heeded the venerable preacher's advice.