Out and About in Florida: Michele Linca and Lauren Woodard

On more than one occasion, Michele Linca and Lauren Woodard (pictured) of Mission Capital have been photographed together in the greater Jupiter, FL area.

The particulars of their relationship are not known, and it is also not known if this is just a personal relationship, or indicative of something bigger going on between Allstate and Mission.

 

George Ruebenson and Ken Lewis: Rats Leaving the Sinking Bailout Ship

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Oct 26, 2009 George E. Ruebenson, president of Allstate Protection, is retiring at the end of the year, said Allstate Corp. A striking parallel can be found in the departure of Ken Lewis from Bank of America.

Ruebenson, who has been with Allstate since 1970, will begin his retirement Dec. 31, Allstate said in a statement. He was appointed president of Allstate Protection in 2007 to succeed Thomas J. Wilson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Allstate.

A search for Ruebenson’s replacement is under way, the company said.

In 2000, Ruebenson was named vice president for the Property-Casualty Service Organization, the largest employee group in the company, then he became a member of the company’s senior management team as senior vice president.

The past several years has seen some shuffling among executives at the largest publicly traded personal lines insurer in the United States. Most recently, former vice chairman of American International Group Inc., Matthew Winter, was named president and CEO of Allstate Financial. Ruebenson had assumed the role as president of Allstate Financial when James E. Hohmann left the company. Don Civgin, former chief financial officer of OfficeMax Inc., was named CFO of Allstate last year.

Allstate Protection combines property/casualty offerings of Allstate, Encompass and Deerbrook Insurance, which are sold through Allstate and independent agents, respectively.

Allstate is a Sinking Ship

From the Insurance Forums site…

Do NOT enter Allstate’s scratch agency program! I went in with a group of 20 agents and the only one that is still around is the agent who purchased a book of business. I was going to buy an agency but thank goodness I didn’t. Remember this with them you DO NOT own your book of business, what you do own is an economic interest. However, if you do not meet the company’s expectations you will be out on your arse with what they call a TPP settlement. On top of that the rumor right now is that the commission is about to be cut below 8% with no overhead expense. You need to send an email to runningclock@aol.com and ask for a secret decoder ring. It is a newsletter about the inside workings at Allstate. Also, there will more than likely be an Encompass (independent Allstate brand) with better rates and commission just down the road from you. Go to the Allstate website and look at all the agencies across the nation for sale, for an agent Allstate is a sinking ship.

The Sexual Harassment of Mary Ann Hetreed

Statement of Mary Ann Hetreed
May 1997

Allstate Insurance Company’s reaction to a charge of quid pro quo sexual harassment by a high-ranking Vice President was to begin a campaign of retaliation against the victim and then fire her after almost 10 years of outstanding performance!

I was subjected to outrageous sexual harassment including coerced sex by a Vice President of Allstate Insurance Company in Northbrook, Illinois. Some incidents occurred at company off-site meetings paid for by Allstate.

Having witnessed retaliation against others who spoke out against an Officer, I had no place to turn. My own boss and other Officers witnessed the harassment, but did nothing.

Encouraged to file charges by Corporate Security, I did so in September, 1995. Despite repeated commitments from Corporate Security and the Law Department that there would be no retaliation, Allstate began a campaign of retaliation against me including — Human Resources disclosing the charges to many of my staff, a significant reduction in my responsibilities, and down-grading my performance reviews. After advising my boss how seriously ill I was as a result of the harassment, his response was to appoint a new supervisor over me — a man who had previously sexually harassed me verbally !!! On February 24, 1997 Allstate suspended me and on March 7 they fired me. I was escorted from the premises with five minutes notice and told not to return. This, after almost 10 years of “Exceeds” reviews, promotions, and dedicated service to the company.

Although Allstate acknowledged that the harassment occurred, they are using their formidable resources – your premium dollars – to fight my lawsuit. I am now unemployed, struggling to find a job at the age of 47.

The only reason more is not known about their discriminatory practices and a corporate environment where Officers are exempt from the rules, is that employees are afraid to speak out, having witnessed willful and malicious retaliation such as I experienced.

Allstate Pays $4.5 Million in Age Discrimination Lawsuit Settlement!

September 11, 2009: NORTHBROOK, Ill.—Allstate Insurance Co. has agreed to pay $4.5 million to about 90 former employees to settle an age discrimination class action lawsuit, said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday.

The litigation with the EEOC, which was filed in 2004, stems from the Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer’s efforts in 2000 to convert its 15,000-member agent workforce to independent contractors from regular employees.

The EEOC said Allstate had adopted a hiring moratorium for a period of one year, or while severance benefits were being received, that had a disproportionate impact on workers over age 40 because more than 90% of the agents subjected to it were in that age group. Allstate has denied that its hiring moratorium violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

An Allstate spokesman said in a statement that “while confident that we acted appropriately,” the insurer decided to settle the dispute “to avoid the burden and considerable expense of continued litigation for everyone involved.”

The spokesman said Allstate believes “its position is correct and that it would have ultimately prevailed in this case. The court has indicated, and the EEOC acknowledges, that the dispute is centered on a point of law over which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion.”

Running Clock Rant: “It Has Come To Our Attention”

July 23, 2009

It has come to our attention that some mortgage companies have recently mailed letters to Castle Key (formerly Allstate Floridian) property customers concerning the company’s recent downgrade by A.M. Best. We are in the process of contacting the two mortgage companies from which we have copies of customer notices to explain that Castle Key maintains a sound capital position and extensive reinsurance. Our emphasis in these discussions is that, despite the A.M. Best downgrade, Castle Key was recently reaffirmed with an A´ (A Prime), Unsurpassed financial rating from Demotech, Inc.  Demotech is an independent financial and actuarial services firm.  Many property insurance companies in Florida operate with only a Demotech Financial Stability Rating®.

One of the customer letters, from Midland Mortgage Company, indicated that they will accept a Demotech financial rating.  As stated above, we are having discussions with this company to advise them of our Demotech rating and will request that they discontinue sending customer notices.  We hope to resolve this issue with little customer disruption.  In the meantime, you or the customer may contact Midland and provide them a copy of Castle Key’s rating. The website www.demotech.com contains the ratings for Castle Key and other Florida property insurance companies.

The other letter, from Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker Mortgage Company, indicated that their company will accept policies written only by insurers who earned high ratings from A.M. Best.  We will contact them and request that they accept Castle Key policies based on the companies’ Demotech rating.  If they do not agree to accept Demotech for Castle Key, you may want to consider calling the customer and offering to place them with one of the available expanded market carriers.  If this transpires, we will provide you with an audit of policies listing this mortgage company that are associated with your agency.

Your agency can affirm to customers that the Castle Key companies are financially strong and stable companies.  At the end of 2008, the Castle Key group held $162 million in surplus and $233 million in cash and invested assets.  Our reinsurance program for 2009 was developed using methodologies supported by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR).

We will provide you with additional details as they develop.  If you receive any additional customer calls involving mortgage companies other than those mentioned above, please contact your Product Management Consultant and if possible, provide a faxed copy of the mortgage company letter.

“Insurance Companies Would Face Millions of Dollars in Fines”

By DAVID EGGERT
Associated Press Writer

July 13 2009, 5:37 PM CDT

ALAIEDON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Insurance companies would face millions of dollars in fines, damages and attorney fees for denying or delaying valid claims under legislation a state House committee is preparing to debate.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-insurancedenials,0,1635193.story

Visit chicagotribune.com at http://www.chicagotribune.com

The Wild Life of an Allstate Agent!

Someone was kind enough to dig around in the databases and send us the answers to questions about Michele Linca.

It seems in April of 2002 she got divorced from Mircea Sandulescu.

It seems in September of 2007 she got divorced from Nicolae Linca.

But it seems in August of 2007 she met with Aaron Jay Goodrum at his apartment.

Here’s a page from the medical examining board about what happened.

This is really unfortunate and it is very good there was no serious or permanent injury but this sure is not what you associate with the life of an insurance agent, being tied to a radiologist’s bed and having your clothes cut off!

For whatever reason, she still keeps Linca’s name and she does have quite a few traffic infractions in Florida.

There’s also this blog and it may explain a few things, or maybe not?

Running Clock Rant: “Agency Relationship Survey”

Every year we get dozens of emails exhorting us to take the Agency Relationship Survey. Every year the participation drops a little more. Besides the fact that the survey interprets our frustration with the company as frustration with our managers (much the same way the ALI interprets customer frustration with the company as customer frustration with the Agency) – there is a more BASIC reason for the growing lack of participation.

This is what I hear on face to face, at conferences, at up-comm meetings, from agents: Although the company does occasionally address issues of processes, leadership and back office performance, they don’t actually want feedback on important issues of corporate decisions that go to the heart of agent/corporate relationships.  Corporate doesn’t really care what its’ 13,000 (?) agents think about decisions that truly affect our ability to do business or a lot of issues that NAPAA attempts to address would not be issues. The expense to the company of administering the NAB under pretense addressing agent issues would not be necessary. The model of management vs work-force would no longer exist.

As the saying goes “two heads are better than one”. There are 13,000 heads who want to succeed, who work from the ground up, who interface directly with “the street” and who have good ideas and something to say. A majority of agents know that there are better ways to do business, and only need to look to IA’s to see that model working. We would like Allstate’s blessing and backing, as well as their hands-off where they are straddling the line of employee vs contractor relationships

Many realize that nothing will change where change is truly needed.  Why waste time on the Agency Relationship Survey?

Running Clock Rant “Mail Fraud”

Ex-Allstate Employee Sentenced for Mail Fraud

May 29, 2009, Associated Press

A federal judge in Birmingham has sentenced a former Allstate Insurance Company employee to 12 months in prison for multiple counts of mail fraud. U.S. District Judge Inge Johnson sentenced 34-year-old Monica Marshall of Brighton Thursday. Marshall pleaded guilty to 11 counts of mail fraud.

Prosecutors said she admitted arranging to send more than $43,000 in reimbursement checks to three individuals who then paid her a kickback. Three others involved in the fraud pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy charges. Marshall, who must report to prison in Aug., was ordered to repay the money to Allstate.

Does anyone know if she was a company “hero”?