Car Insurers Issuing Coronavirus Refunds
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your Money Briefing for Tuesday, April 7th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. In most of the country, the coronavirus pandemic is keeping millions of Americans in their homes and their cars off the road.
Why are auto insurers issuing refunds during the coronavirus pandemic?
And that's meant far fewer accidents. And as a result, some car insurance companies are refunding a portion of customers' monthly premiums.
They also face the criticism in social media, potentially, as they were reporting really good earnings and their policyholders are jobless in many cases or otherwise seriously inconvenienced by having to stay in their homes under these shelter-in-place orders.
That's Wall Street Journal reporter Leslie Sism. Coming up, she'll tell us if the rest of the insurance industry could make a similar move.
The stay-at-home guidelines issued around the country can be frustrating, but here's a positive note. With so many Americans' cars parked in their driveways, the number of accidents has plummeted.
How much have miles driven and claims dropped since lockdowns began?
Now, some auto insurance companies are issuing partial refunds to their customers. Wall Street Journal reporter Leslie Sissom joins us with details. So, Leslie, how much has the pandemic impacted claims made to car insurance companies?
there is a potentially very large impact. We are just starting to get some data around how big an impact, but you can go look at any highway, go take a trip and see how little traffic there is. People are just not getting out in their cars to commute to work. That's normally where some of the heaviest traffic in this country takes place. People driving to their workplaces, people driving to their train stations. Or people going out to eat, going to dinner, going to the shopping center. And none of that's happening right now. So the roads are practically empty. The fact that roads are empty is significant in terms of claims because miles driven is one of the biggest correlations with traffic accidents.
When there are these heavy rush hours, you're going to get a lot of fender benders. You may get more serious wrecks. When people are on the roads, they could be out on country roads where they're going to run into deer and other animals. So you don't have wrecks if your car is parked in your driveway or your garage generally.
And how are insurance companies responding?
Allstate announced that it will return $600 million to approximately 18 million car owners, and a Midwestern insurer called American Family is going to return $200 million to its smaller base policyholders. They said they are doing this because of the dramatic decrease in miles driven which has translated into fewer claims. Thus, they are sending fewer dollars out the door. They sent fewer dollars out the door in late March. They anticipate sending fewer dollars than planned on claims out in April.
Which insurers announced refunds and how much are they returning to customers?
So they are sharing some of this good fortune back with the policyholders.
And what kind of pressure were the companies facing to do this?
Consumer advocacy groups such as the Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Economic Justice had been writing letters petitioning state insurance departments to force insurance companies to share any windfall they were going to get from reduced miles driven vehicles. to share that money back with policyholders. To date, only a couple insurance companies had responded to those petitions and they had issued letters that urged or encouraged insurers to treat policyholders generously, but they stopped short of an order. Now, the pressure was expected to mount in the beginning the middle of the month of April when the publicly traded companies would begin reporting their first quarter earnings.
Wall Street analysts have been saying recently that the car insurers were going to have pretty good results because the traffic was down toward the end of March.
What regulatory and consumer pressures pushed insurers to share windfalls?
So it was going to become evident at some point in April how good times have been for the car insurers as a result of so few miles being driven.
Was there also a potential PR problem the companies were facing that led them to this decision?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–0:17
2
Why are auto insurers issuing refunds during the coronavirus pandemic?
0:17–1:09
3
How much have miles driven and claims dropped since lockdowns began?
1:09–3:13
4
Which insurers announced refunds and how much are they returning to customers?
3:13–4:29
5
What regulatory and consumer pressures pushed insurers to share windfalls?
4:29–6:36
6
Will large publicly traded insurers follow Allstate and issue refunds?
6:36–7:30
7
Are other insurance lines, like workers' compensation, likely to see the same benefits?
7:30–7:47
Speakers
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