Overview
In accordance with California Insurance Code §12921.1, the Consumer Complaint Study (CCS) is published by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) to assist insurance consumers as they shop for insurance. In addition to using this study, consumers should also consider coverages, premiums, agent service, and insurer financial strength before buying a policy.

The Consumer Complaint Study is a combination of two studies which provide informational data.  The primary study is the Justified Complaint Study (Composite Ratio) which ranks the insurance companies according to their justified complaint ratio.  The secondary study is the Company Performance and Comparison Data Study. 

Justified Complaint Study
The tables in the study provide the following about each individual company: rank, company name, approximate number of policies or exposures in California, justified complaint ratio and number of justified complaints, for the past three years.  CDI ranks insurers according to their justified complaint ratio. The justified complaint ratio is based on the number of justified complaints per 100,000 policies or exposures. For those companies without a ratio, ranking is done by the policy or exposure count.   This study only includes complaints that are closed for a given year regardless of when the complaints were filed.  This study also categorizes the company's data based on the type of insurance they fall under (Automobile, Homeowners, and Life).

How to view a company's justified complaint data:

• Automobile Insurance

• Homeowners Insurance

• Life Insurance

See Example below on how to use the justified complaint study.

Company Performance and Comparison Studies
The Company Performance Study displays the Company Performance table and Alleged Violations for a specific company and calendar year.  The company performance table provides the complaints determined by the department to require that corrective action be taken against the insurer, or leading to insurer compromise, or other remedy for the complainant, those that are found to be without merit, those with other outcomes, and justified complaints (See Definitions). Included in the Company Performance section is the Alleged Violations table which provides information on the number and type of alleged violations registered with CDI for that company, time period, and line of coverage.  The Comparison Data Study provides information on the justified complaint ratio, market share, complaint share, and index.  The secondary studies provide the background of how the companies are ranked against each other.

How to view a company's performance or comparison data studies:

• Use the company links in the Justified Complaint Study, if the company that you are interested in viewing is displayed on the table
• To search for a specific company's profile, click on Company Profile:
  1. Type in the specific company that you are interested in.
  2. The Company Profile page will display the "Company Complaint Information" section.  To view the specific company's performance and comparison data, select the "Company Performance & Comparison Data" link.

If you have additional questions, please TALK TO US.

Example - Justified Complaint Study

The table above is used to illustrate how to read the table in the three year study. From the table, one can learn the following information about Company C:

• Company C is ranked 28th best company among 50 large insurers for homeowners insurance in Year 3.   In other words, 27 companies had a lower, or better, complaint ratio than Company C.
• Company C insured approximately 350,000 homeowners exposures.
• The company's Justified Complaint Ratio for Year 3 is 0.9 - based on the number of justified complaints closed between January 1 through December 31 to the number of 100,000 earned exposures.  Thus, Company C's 0.9 ratio implies that for every 100,000 earned exposures, the company had 0.9 justified complaints closed against them.
• The Department closed 3 justified complaints for Company C in Year 3.

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