Customer-centric and responsible products

Accountability

Developing and providing customer-centric products is the responsibility of multiple teams, including Product, Innovation, Marketing and Technology.

Policies and practices

We empower customers by providing affordable, simple and connected products.

Advancements in data collection and technology help us offer competitive prices. Allstate agents and staff build personal relationships with customers to balance risks and costs and offer the best insurance solutions at the right price.

Our homeowners’ insurance pricing is based on external factors such as local historical weather patterns, the cost of labor and building materials, and the home’s age, along with homeowners policy preferences such as deductible amount.

Allstate offers several ways to reduce customers’ premiums, including discounts for insuring their car and home with Allstate, maintaining a safe driving record, using Drivewise® to encourage and reward safe driving behaviors, and Milewise, our pay-per-mile auto insurance. Customers may also get credit for installing home safety features like smoke detectors and security systems.

Accessible products

We’re expanding customer access to our products. Outside of California, we integrated Esurance into Allstate brand to create Allstate Direct, expanding product availability in the direct-to-consumer channel. Additionally, Allstate closed acquisition of National General Holdings Corp., making National General the fifth largest carrier with independent agents. The completely new Allstate mobile app was launched in the middle of 2020. In the last two years, monthly active use of the app has increased 76%, with 4.7 million users in 2021.

Proprietary auto insurance risk scores

For auto insurance, we use information such as driving records, location and vehicle type to provide accurate and competitive prices. Over time, we expect to use more data from our telematics tools to develop auto insurance prices. Using telematics, the science of collecting data through sensors in a vehicle, Allstate rewards customers with lower premiums for safe driving. By analyzing a customer’s average driving patterns, we can promote better public safety habits like following the speed limit and avoiding hard braking.

Ongoing pandemic response

Given an unprecedented decline in driving due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we provided auto insurance customers a Shelter-in-Place Payback totaling close to $1 billion, with most customers receiving 15% of their monthly premium back in April, May and June 2020. As we began to see a decline in auto accidents in March 2020, we immediately provided customers a payback and were the first U.S. insurer to announce this program.

As everyone’s lives became more digital, Allstate offered free identity protection to all U.S. residents starting in April 2020 and through the end of the year. We helped over 200,000 Americans protect their identity online in 2020. To limit in-person contact when possible, we increased the use of virtual tools like QuickFoto Claim® and Virtual Assist®, which allow for a simple, fast and safe claims handling process for customers and employees.

For auto and property customers who needed payment relief, we offer a Special Payment Plan that allowed them to delay payments for 60 days without penalty. They could also pay what they could afford during the 60-day period, with no minimum required. We also took action so customers using the Special Payment Plan during pandemic shutdowns didn’t lose discounts like Easy Pay and Responsible Payer even though they didn’t meet the criteria to participate.

During shelter-in-place orders and states of emergency, we extended coverage to protect customers using their personal car or motorcycle to deliver food, medicine or other commercial goods, activities that are typically excluded by standard personal auto policies.

Programs and performance

QuickFoto Claim app

With the free, user-friendly QuickFoto Claim app, a customer can take photos of a drivable car’s damage and submit them to our highly trained auto technicians, who can remotely calculate the estimated damage. This product supports our efforts to increase low-carbon product offerings, as it eliminates the need for technicians to drive on site to assess the damage.

Drivewise®

Through the use of telematics, we’ve completely redefined insurance. Our Drivewise product personalizes the auto experience and provides customers insight into their behavior to promote and reward safe driving. Customers are rewarded with savings just for activating Drivewise in the Allstate® mobile app and continue to earn rewards with a policy credit every six months for safe driving. Drivewise is available in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Allstate was the first major U.S. insurer to bring to market a mobile app to collect data for a telematics-based insurance program. As of Dec. 31, 2021, Allstate had over 1.75 million Drivewise connections.

Crash detection (a Drivewise feature)

Allstate launched free Crash Detection Services through Drivewise. Using telematics and the sensors in a smartphone, the app can detect when a customer may have been involved in a serious car crash as a passenger or a driver. This safety feature is available through the Allstate Mobile app, which offers customers quick access to emergency assistance, claims and Allstate Roadside Services.

Allstate is the only top insurance company offering this benefit to anyone, not just our customers, with no additional equipment needed. We want to give people peace of mind and make roads safer. All iOS users with the Allstate Mobile app received Crash Detection on Dec. 20, 2020, and all Android users on Jan. 29, 2021. Through 2021, this feature has detected over 7900 crashes, with 10 customers using this feature to call 911, and 70 customers using this feature to call for roadside assistance. Additionally, just under 250 customers started a claim after they received a Crash Detection notification.

Milewise®

Pay-per-mile coverage is auto insurance based primarily on the miles a customer drives. It gives consumers personalized products and services – and more control over cost and usage. Milewise, Allstate’s pay-per-mile auto insurance, is available in 22 states and gives customers the same great coverage and claim service from Allstate.

The number of vehicles that are written under our Milewise product increased by over 530% in 2020. Even as mileage began to normalize in 2021, Milewise growth was still strong, with a 70% vehicle increase in 2021. Allstate ended 2021 with just over 275,000 vehicles enrolled in the Milewise product. As companies continue to offer employees telecommuting options, our customers are gravitating toward insurance that can accommodate their new driving habits.

Cyber coverages

Allstate Business Insurance offers its customers eight types of first-party and third-party technology-focused coverages. Cyber coverages are essential for business owners because personal information held by a business can be lost, stolen or accidentally released. A business may need help with the financial and legal burden, as well as the service obligations to affected individuals. All 50 states plus the District of Columbia now have laws requiring notification of individuals whose personal information is lost or stolen, and 29% of small businesses have had at least one data breach. Cyber coverage is available in 49 states.

Allstate identity protection

Allstate Identity Protection (AIP) is reinventing privacy and identity protection by giving consumers the tools to see, control and protect their digital lives. Allstate recognizes the need for better access to safe and secure digital services. In 2020, Allstate’s Identity Protection services were offered for free to all US residents including existing Allstate customers, helping over 200,000 Americans protect their identity.

Our Digital Footprint product, launched and integrated through the Allstate Mobile app, allows any consumer, not just Allstate customers, to run a free Digital Footprint. This product helps people see where their data lives among all the online accounts they have created, lets them unsubscribe from emails and also request that their data be deleted from organizations they no longer want to be associated with. Consumers get a simple summary of each account they have, along with the privacy and data sharing agreements they signed when creating those accounts. This gives consumers the power to take back their digital lives.

As Americans share more personal data online, unemployment and tax fraud continue to be prominent issues.

Between October and December 2021, AIP’s total identity theft and fraud cases increased by 11%, led by rapid spikes in instances of fraudulent credit and/or loan account creation, inquiries and applications. Fraudulent creation of new credit and loan accounts grew by 61% from 2020 to 2021. By December 2021, this type of fraud accounted for over half of our total identity theft cases. Another 42% of cases from October to December 2021 were instances of credit and loan applications. Read more in Allstate’s Identity Fraud in Focus quarterly report.

Before the pandemic, unemployment fraud was a sliver of overall identity theft. Today, it’s one of the most prevalent types of fraud we resolve for customers. It illustrates how quickly cybercriminals adapt to new vulnerabilities and why consumers need strong identity protection. We’ve managed the spike in cases effectively and earned strong post-remediation satisfaction scores of 97%.

The employee benefits business at AIP remains strong. During open enrollment season in 2021 leading into 2022, about 950 new employer clients were onboarded, and approximately 200,000 new plans went into effect.

Sharing economy coverage

With the rapid growth of consumers using personal cars and homes to participate in the sharing economy, Allstate moved quickly to address their needs.

• Ride for Hire® provides Allstate customers who drive for companies like Uber and Lyft an optional endorsement to help fill the gap between their personal auto policy coverage and what’s provided by the transportation network company’s commercial policy. As communities plan for a low-carbon economy, ride-sharing plays a critical role. By providing insurance for ride-share operators and car-sharing services, Allstate helps enable the low-carbon transition and fills an insurance gap in a way many competitors don’t.
• Transportation Expense coverage offered with auto policies that previously provided rental cars for customers after an accident was expanded to include reimbursement for public transportation or ride-sharing.
• HostAdvantage® provides Allstate customers who rent out their homes on sites like Airbnb and HomeAway coverage options to help with their personal property protection gaps.
• Additionally, Allstate is one of a select group of insurers who provide commercial insurance coverage to Uber, Lyft, and the riders and drivers utilizing these platforms.

Avail

Avail, through its ever-expanding airport and downtown locations, provides easy, affordable and Allstate-protected car sharing options for travelers and locals at a time when many are seeing reduced availability and high prices from traditional car rental companies. Through Avail, vehicle owners are also able to enjoy the financial benefit of sharing their car while they travel or simply working from home.

Arity

Arity is a mobility data and analytics company that turns billions of miles of driving data into predictive insights to help make transportation smarter, safer and more economical. Insurance companies, retailers and sharing economy companies turn to Arity to better understand driving behavior, manage risk, operate more safely and ultimately increase their bottom line. As of April 1, 2022, Arity has collected nearly 750 billion miles of driving data at a rate of nearly 11,000 miles per second and 930 million miles per day.

National General

National General is a specialty personal lines insurance holding company, serving a wide range of customer segments through a network of independent agents for property-casualty products. National General traces its roots to 1939 and provides personal and commercial automobile, homeowners, umbrella, recreational vehicle, motorcycle, lender-placed, supplemental health and other niche insurance products. Its property-casualty business was built through a combination of organic growth and opportunistic acquisitions. Allstate finalized its acquisition of National General in January 2021, making National General, an Allstate company, the fifth largest carrier with independent agents.

Environmentally responsible products

Paper use is one of the most significant factors in our environmental footprint. Allstate offers paperless billing and up to a 10% discount for customers who go paperless. Demonstrating our commitment to environmental stewardship and customer retention, the savings from this discount go back to our customers through lower prices. In 2021, of those claims eligible for digital payment, 64% were paid digitally, up 32% since 2018.

In 2021, we allocated resources toward correctly identifying customer mileage. For low-mileage customers, this means that not only are they helping the environment, but they also have an affordable rate that is commensurate with their low-mileage risk. This work will continue into 2022.

We offer the Homeowners Policy Green Improvement Reimbursement Endorsement. It allows a customer to replace damaged or destroyed appliances and equipment with more energy-efficient items and be reimbursed by Allstate for the additional cost. The reimbursement applies to certain categories of Energy Star®-rated products such as: washers and refrigerators; computers and other electronics; heating and cooling equipment; and certain plumbing and building equipment. These products are designed to save electricity or water, reducing a home’s environmental impact while lowering homeowners’ utility bills. The Homeowners Policy Green Improvement Reimbursement Endorsement is available in most states.