Auto-Owners ranked in second place for home insurance in Insure.com’s 2023 Best Insurance Companies survey, with customers generally scoring the company well for everything from customer service to discounts.
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Auto-Owners holds its own against much larger insurers in terms of service. In fact, it landed at the No. 2 spot, behind only insurance giant State Farm, on the 2023 Best Home Insurance Companies list. Customers generally score the company well for everything from customer service to discounts, but rates aren’t as low as some competitors.
Bucking the current trend toward all-digital service, Auto-Owners doesn’t offer quotes online and stands behind its decision to quote home insurance only through agents. That’s a downside for those who prefer to be able to shop for insurance without having to speak to anyone directly.
However, Auto-Owners has developed a solid reputation and has an A++ rating with AM Best. For those who like personal service, it’s a good pick.
AM Best's Financial Strength Rating is an independent opinion of an insurer's financial strength and ability to meet its ongoing insurance policy and contract obligations.
Below is Insure.com’s review of the company. It’s based on third-party metrics, including two J.D. Power studies (Home Insurance Study and Property Claims Satisfaction Study) and an in-depth survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here, including an explanation of our survey scores.
The average home insurance rate is $2,433; Auto-Owners is well below that, although Allstate has lower rates.
Auto-Owners customers are satisfied, with 89% saying they’re happy with the company for overall service. It outscored several other large companies in this category. State Farm led with 93% of its customers giving it a high score.
Auto-Owners didn’t fare quite as well in J.D. Power’s 2022 Home Insurance Study, which rates companies for overall customer satisfaction, with a score that’s only a few points above the 819 average. It still outscored several big competitors.
Auto-Owners performed really well in this category. Of the survey respondents who are Auto-Owners customers, 94% said they were satisfied or highly satisfied with policy offerings from the company. It trailed only Travelers among the companies we ranked.
Auto-Owners outscored some big names in this category, including State Farm. The survey found that 89% of customers found Auto-Owners easy to deal with. Travelers led this category among ranked companies, with 91% of its customers giving it a high score.
Auto-Owners isn’t the most recommended company for home insurance of those surveyed, but customers still would recommend it to others at a rate of 89%. Most competitors scored better in this category, which, among ranked companies, was led by State Farm.
Auto-Owners rated lower than some companies, with 72% of customers saying they trust their insurance company. State Farm led this category, with 83% of its customers saying they trust it, but most companies didn’t do especially well here.
Of the Auto-Owners customers surveyed, 89% plan to renew their home insurance with the company. That’s not as high as some competitors, but better than many companies on the survey. Travelers led this category.
Auto-Owners Insurance Group was founded in 1916 and has its headquarters in Lansing, MI. It sells auto, home, life insurance and more through a network of 48,000 independent agents. The company has more than 4,700 employees. It’s a Fortune 500 company that is dedicated to selling insurance solely through agents, as it has for over 100 years.
Auto-Owners “Homeowners” Accessed December 2022.
Auto-Owners. “History” Accessed December 2022
J.D. Power. “2022 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study.” Accessed December 2022
J.D. Power. “2022 U.S. Home Insurance Study.” Accessed December 2022
Insure.com in the fall of 2022 surveyed more than 1,500 people with auto, home, life and health insurance (805 with home insurance). The survey was conducted by online market research company Slice MR. Respondents were asked to name their insurer and the editors then selected – based on the number of responses – the top companies for this year’s Best home Insurance Companies ranking. Insure.com needed 20 or more of a company’s customers to respond to the survey for that insurer to be included in the ranking, although in some categories the editors did consider companies with 18 or 19 responses.
Respondents were first asked to grade their insurer in the following categories – customer satisfaction, claims satisfaction and policy offerings. The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.
Survey score calculation. Respondents were then asked to rank their insurer’s top three attributes out of more than a dozen presented – including customer satisfaction and policy offerings. For a number one choice, five points were given; for a second choice, three points; and for a third choice, a single point. The total points for each choice – first, second and third – were then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create a percentage. Those percentages are presented in the results as scores.
Respondents were then asked if they would recommend their insurer to someone else. The percentage who said yes is presented in the results.
They also were given the statement “I trust my insurance company” and asked if they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. The percentage of those who said they agreed or strongly agreed is presented in the results.
The editors compiled the survey results and then collected National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives, and AM Best data, which measures financial strength.
They also collected insurance rate data from Quadrant Information Services.
With the help of Prof. David Marlett, Ph.D., managing director of the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center at Appalachian State University, the editors created a rating system to determine which insurance companies were best in each sector. For home insurers, we used the following weights to calculate the overall score for each company:
No company in the ranking received less than 1 star in any category and 5 stars was the most any insurer could receive.