Have you ever gotten into a conversation with them about the company? I recently met a guy who retired about seven or eight years ago and found it funny how he kept defending Allstate and claiming there was nothing wrong with it. There was no convincing him that it was not the company he knew anymore, he stuck to his g-ns until the end. I gave up after a while, because what's the point? I still find it funny how determined he was that he knew the company better than I did because he spent nearly four decades there, despite the fact that those decades were in a completely different time and it was a different company then.
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I'm a relatively recent retiree. Allstate is definitely not the same as when I worked there (over 25 years). For a while there, it was a really great Company to work for. The big change was hiring Shapiro--after that, everything went downhill. Fortunately, I saw the writing on the wall and got out just in time.
Allstate is not the company it was or should have been. Like Biden who has been on the wrong side of every foreign policy issue, TW and the BOD have consistently made (or failed to make) decisions that were destructive to P&C market share gains. How we could go from a very strong #2 position in Auto insurance to a weak #4 with the assets and head start we had on everybody else is a lesson in incompetence and arrogance. Failed to invest in the right technology while layering on unnecessary product and claims complexity. Bought the wrong companies and further destroyed their value. Did not recognize that going deep on Direct access was NOT competing with agency force. Propped up stock performance through share repurchases instead of pursuing growth investments. The field MOC structure built by TW paid senior leaders well to hit targets that never resulted in market share growth. Company was internally focused on the wrong things while GEICO and Progressive followed the evolution of customers and technology.
You don't have to talk to retirees, talk to anyone that's been around 5 years or longer. It's a totally different company, different mindset. I've been here 10 years and each year we're asked to do more with less, and not because we're being wasteful or we're overstaffed or anything like that, but solely to make more money for the company. Which, fine enough, but there is no global cost saving strategy. So, Claims will spend thousands of dollars pursuing records and in litigation fees rather than offer $500 more on a claim (which might just settle the claim), or they'll spend tens of thousands, if not more, remodeling an office just to break the least two years later. Allstate will spend $1.00 a hundred times a day without thinking twice, but won't spend $100.00 on something meaningful/useful.
I am retired and I have family that works at Allstate and I can tell you IT IS NOT the same company I worked for over 30 years in claims.
4 decades and a full pension before they gutted it - he probably walked away with a few million. Therefore he gonna be pretty happy!
Yes it is. Underwriting stinks
Aside from claims and legal, the company isn't that terrible...