Things are not looking good with Allstate, which has posted its worst auto insurance customer retention numbers in two decades.
In 2020, the company’s auto policy renewals were 87.5%, down from 88% in 2019. It was Allstate’s worst policy renewal rate since at least 2001, investor disclosures noted.
Moreover, Allstate’s earnings data revealed that there was also a 0.5% decline in policies at year-end, to 21.8 million. The insurer’s renewal ratio in 2020 was 78.2% – its worst quarterly attrition in at least eight years.
“Of course, retention’s always hard to figure out, right?” said Allstate CEO Tom Wilson during a recent conference call with analysts. “Because you have a bunch of stuff going on, you have people changing lifestyles, not driving as much, some people shopping more, you have competitive moves.”
Executives ascribed some of this attrition to Allstate’s discontinuation of the “Shelter-in-Place Payback” rebate program, wherein the company provided 15% rebates to its auto insurance customers during the early stages of the pandemic. Allstate’s program expired last summer, whereas competitors like Progressive and Geico have extended their rebate programs in select states.
Another competitor, State Farm, also began raising its rates, but compared to Allstate, it chose not to raise them back to pre-pandemic levels, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
