Frankenmuth Insurance Reviews

Not only did Frankenmuth support everything I wanted to do, they put central air in my house because she required it. They paid for 24 hour in house nursing when that became necessary. I could not afford to pay for her prescriptions up front so they contacted my pharmacy and set up an account so they would be billed directly. My mother successfully got off the ventilator and lived several years more. I cannot say enough about my agent and my adjuster. I never worried about money and everything was handled beautifully.

Original Review: Oct. 23, 2013

After an unexpected auto accident in which my boyfriend of 8 years was hit in his truck pulling a trailer while he was almost stopped to turn, we had unbelievable disrespect and failure to meet our policy and expectations. We filed a claim and promptly they assisted with medical diligently. When our doctor put my fiance on 30-day no-over-10-lb activity, they refused to pay because he is a 10-99 worker vs. a taxed worker. We explained to them we don't have stubs from check or copies of originals and they were very grouchy. This lady, Diane, I had spoken to, she claimed I was yelling at her as an excuse to hang up. We were shocked and confused why they would not honor their policy in our family's time of need. Then I researched this company and found others to have experienced the same from them. We recommend this company be investigated by officials capable of pulling files for review to a committee to decide if these actions shall be permitted to occur.

1) Conflicts of Interest between board/executive staff are flagrant. Specifically, each year the annual board meeting is held in the first quarter at luxurious resorts in places like Cabo (The one and only Palmila) or Vegas at the Wynn. The executives host the board members and spouses, and executive spouses for week-long trips where all expenses are paid, lavish entertainment, meals, and penthouse rooms are covered. The last day of the trip, the board members attend the meeting wherein they vote on executive pay and bonus. This reeks of a conflict of interest.

2) The board members themselves are the best friends of the executive staff. They are all locals to Frankenmuth. Frankenmuth executives stack the board of directors with their friends on purpose. A Senior VP admitted that this was the only way they could ensure that they got everything they wanted without questions or anyone contesting/challenging.

3) Canned meetings vote in the board. The policyholder meeting is annually and only employees who hold policies are invited. They purposefully do not want policyholders showing up. They know that employees will never risk their employment by asking questions or challenging a vote or membership election.

4) Misuse of policyholder funds is frequent and egregious and solely for the personal pleasure/use of the executives. As a mutual company, their policyholders own Frankenmuth and its subsidiaries. They are accountable for being corporately responsible with policyholder surplus yet they ask the State for premium increases because they claim they cannot make profits. This company generates about 350 million in premiums annually. The executives spend disproportionately on themselves.

Policyholders would be outraged if they knew of the spending and lifestyles of these folks. I would strongly urge a forensic audit of the Frankenmuth books and in particular, the board and executive travel, gifts and tax evasion tactics. I would also urge to make public the information regarding pay structure, bonuses, golden parachutes etc. Frankenmuth is not a large company in the overall insurance business, however the executives spend on themselves as if they are a global conglomerate with Enron ethics.

If you could get a policyholder to write current CEO John Benson and ask to attend a "policyholder" meeting you would see how canned the meeting is. It's ridiculous. Demanding them to disclose their travel expenses, relationships with the board and trips with the board prior to voting on executive pay/bonuses would be eye-opening for the public.

I hope you have the power and courage to demand accountability from them and/or get other people of power to look hard at what's going on at this company because it is costing policyholders money via increased policy premiums that are going in to the pockets of greedy executives.

The spouses are not 1099'd this "gift". It's no wonder this little company that flies under the radar has executives building multimillion dollar homes - they don't pay claims - look at the percentage of disputes they file in proportion to competitors on the DELEG website for work comp. This company and its executive staff and board members need to be investigated because they are always crying to legislators that they need premium increases - but it's to fund their lifestyles, not to cover claims. They spent 5 million dollars on a trip to the Greek islands for 90 people. That's about 53K per person for a one week trip! This corporate malfeasance needs to be stopped. These folks are worse than Enron but no one pays them any attention because the company is only about 390 million in premiums annually. Consumers should still be outraged and politicians should care because corruption is corruption.