The Standard Insurance Company Reviews

The Standard actively tries not to pay - even when you have a valid claim. While all of the information needed is provided to them, they will willfully ignore the documentation and request it in a specific form that is unable to be provided by the medical institutions in efforts to avoid paying out.

Firstly, they request the same documents again and again regardless of the number of times you mail them. It is impossible to get anyone on the phone. Uploading documents to your account online is also difficult due to the website having problems or it appears to go through then you get a letter requesting the same documents and claiming you have insufficient information in your claim. They actually will use 'lack of doctors notes' as missing information. even after you sent all the doctors notes and emergency room orders and medical records and anything else that might fulfill that expectation. Then they send a denial based on 'not enough information supporting your claim'. You send an appeal letter and they stop communicating. You really feel like this company is a sham and that is why many people question the premiums.

If I could give 0 reviews, I would, my father passed and left us money. They struggled to give us our funds but they eventually came but when it came to my brother who is incarcerated, they dropped the ball. He had to go through an entire process to get me as his POA. To only be put on hold several time for process of approval of the forms. What? A bank can approve this same form within a hour. It’s been a month. Rude immigrants and liars (I had one try to tell me the fax number that 2 other representatives gave me was incorrect). Manager Ella is super disrespectful and treat you as if she is doing you a favor. They definitely don’t value their customers.

I had shoulder surgery due to an accident at home and I was put on short term disability. After 12 weeks, I was not able to return to work per my restrictions and I was supposed to the "flow right into long term disability" according to what someone at The Standard told me. That was a lie. I called multiple times to ask why it was taking so long, and every time I was told it can take up to 5 days. Well, it's always 5 days from yesterday with these people.

This company is terrible. They’ll tell you 3-5 days to resolve a claim, then close your claim, then deny having papers that have been confirmed to be in their possession multiple times. Next they said their computers were down. After that, they had to review my medical records (there were a lot of them apparently? That’s how most injuries work, why were they surprised by this?). Next the account manager told me that “it wasn’t even that much money”, like an effort to dissuade me from getting my rightfully owed money. Then a few other runarounds and after threats to call my attorney, bbb, etc. surprise! Your claim is approved, but we conveniently don’t have the direct deposit info we’ve confirmed having on 5 occasions now. There should be congressional investigations into this company. I will avoid them at all costs going forward, you should too!

The Standard closed my disability case for the month of February 2026 without any notice. I submitted my paperwork for my follow up appointment with my physician. I called on Friday Feb. 20, 26 to ask to speak with a supervisor..I was told to give them 24-48 to contact me. As of this morning the automatic system is stating my case is still closed. This is my only source of income since I'm out work injury. I would like to speak with a higher up because the ball keep getting drop. I'm not happy about this. My case should not be closed when I submitted my paperwork.

Get emotionally and physically prepared to have no income for 8+ weeks. You will not be fully informed about the steps in the claim process. Your adjustor will forget to mail your payments. I haven’t experienced a lack of ethics this severe since the 1980s, when insurance prior to regulation and the addition of technology.

My company just switched from Principal to The Standard. Have no idea why. Was with Principal for 10 years and they were a dream to work with. Just had my first dealing with The Standard and am not impressed at all. I’m taking a withdrawal from my 401K to pay for an urgent, unexpected expense of $4,000. When I called to initiate the withdrawal, I was told it would take 5-10 days to get my money. The Standard does not do electronic funds transfers - I received a voicemail today saying my PAPER CHECK would arrive in 10-15 business days! What kind of professional financial service company doesn’t utilize direct deposit for their customers?! Is this the 1930s?

Do not get insurance from this company. Years of paying into it and 0 assistance after having major reconstructive surgery. Initial injury was mis diagnosed as shoulder, no surgery required. Months later, after additional pain, the doctors were able to identify that there was actually another injury that was in my chest. At which point, I required major reconstructive surgery.

I have been on disability since 11/25 for shoulder replacement surgery. I have been through 4 surgeries. Without notice by mail, email, text, or anything my disability stopped mid Jan 2026. I have been on the phone with these folks no shorter than 12 hours since. I sent the surgeon's documentation in from last surgery I had on 1/14. All of a sudden they can’t “find” me or their systems are down. No managers or escalation available and most Communication is done off shore that you can’t understand.

This company is one of the worst that I have ever dealt with. Surgery on 12/18 and my surgeon provided the requested form with a return to work date of 1/30. They decided that I should return on 1/2. I had to get my surgeon’s office to do another form that stated the same thing and I am still waiting for a decision. When I called to make sure they had the additional form I was told no. Once I stated that the surgeon’s office faxed it and that I emailed it, they suddenly found it. The outsourcing doesn’t help. Stay far, far away if you have a choice!

I get a request for my doctor to fill out paperwork about my seizure disorder about once a year. If I can’t get an appointment with my neurologist immediately they start harassing me within a month. Making that appointment inside The Standard's time frame is difficult to begin with, but attempting it while dealing with a seizure disorder makes it more difficult. They could send the request earlier and allow more time to complete. Instead they would rather cause me to have a seizure trying to complete paperwork inside a short window of time. Maybe a disability lawsuit is the answer.

They suck. The first initial call in you will speak to the sweetest American lady you ever talk to. After that they are all outsourced overseas. And they are reading from cue cards. They screwed up and I am two checks behind. I am about to be evicted and lose my pickup. Thank you Standard. They do not care. I'm glad my company is changing to someone different than this lame group

I would not go with standard. I had a short term disability claim. It took forever to get a decision always was told it is going through medical examiner. I wis I would have never purchased this insurance. Sales rep came to my post office selling policies. Oh my claim was denied. Do not purchase policy with this company. They deny a lot of claims from what I am finding out. Go with another company. USPS carrier our union MBA offers a way better policy.

This by far is the worst company to go through. Customer service is extremely rude. They will charge you to do any withdrawals yet you as a customer have to do all the legwork I will never put any of my retirement through this company. Everything is resourced overseas. Speaking to customer service is just your standard textbook reading.

Ridiculous fees along with clerical errors like name misspellings that they are unable to fix. Took me weeks to fix the issue at my IRA custodian because The Standard thought it was good to send both my Roth and traditional 401k money to the same IRA. They were little to no help to get it resolved until I escalated way up the chain. Now I got a letter (even though my account was closed years ago) about updates in my account. So, I decided to log in and saw that $25 or so got added to my old closed account, and they've been taking $6 fees per quarter out of it. If you hate your employees, you should use The Standard as your 401k provider.

If I could leave 0 stars I would, some of the worst customer service I’ve ever had to deal with & response time is abysmal. Be prepared to sit on hold multiple times, they put me on hold for 30 minutes because a supervisor wasn’t available & they still didn’t have an answer to my question regarding retirement funds not being allocated. Stay far away from The Standard. If you have the choice of using a different company I urge you to do so. You will thank yourself in the long run.

I had a critical illness claim through my employer-provided insurance, which required multiple appeals before approval. Despite submitting all required documentation, the claim was initially denied twice, and customer service was inconsistent and at times rude, providing conflicting information. The claim was approved about two days after the insurance company was notified that my state insurance regulator had requested all documentation related to my case and that legal representation was obtained. While the claim was eventually resolved, the process was unnecessarily prolonged and stressful. Improvements in communication, customer service, and document management would benefit future policyholders. I would switch providers if I had the option, as the experience left me dissatisfied despite the eventual approval.

Do not take the cancer polio out! I’ve been waiting for 7 weeks after filling the claim and still no money! Terrible and pathetic! I’m out of work and do not have money to eat or drive and they don’t care! It’s always waiting on the medical examiner to have a decision. Idk what to do!

When you leave The Standard, they will charge you $75 for the privilege of leaving them. If you happen to have another contribution process after your distribution that is less than that $75, then that money is forfeited to The Standard as they, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, are unwilling to waive their fee. It is a clear money grab and their customer support don't care about actually resolving your issue or assisting you. Would never recommend or use going forward.

They are horrible with keeping up with payments, and the payments are so random, you never know when or how much the payment is going to be. Also, when calling customer service, I could not understand the rep, because her accent was too strong so needless to say, I got nothing accomplished. 👎👎👎👎👎 They get 5 thumbs down!

I left my job Sept 21, 2025. I reached out to The Standard for a distribution of my 401k. I was told I would need to wait 14 days for my address change to go through. I waited the required days and called. I was told that my employer did not update the correct information into the system and would need more days before I can have access to my money. It was not my mistake or error but I am being made to wait longer. They passed the buck and blamed my former employer.

During the end of short term disability and what was supposed to be long term disability, I did not get paid for 3 weeks. Which cause several over draft fees from bills still coming in. When I asked how long the transition would take from short to long term, I was told 45 days. So I had to cancel the disability insurance and go back to work with a partially healed amputation of my foot. Then after canceling, they issued a payment to me which they are now calling an overpayment which includes taxes paid. I have received no help from The Standard in resolving their mistake.

I left my employer at the beginning of September. It’s now October the company has never communicated with me about the status of my disbursement or my account closure. Every time I call they tell me that all I need is determination date. I inform them through email and phone calls of what’s happening and yet they have never communicated my information back to me. I’ve reached out to my employer several times I’ve even seen copies of the form that they sent over with the date and timestamp and the company claims that they never received it so now I’m in the middle of back-and-forth communication between my old employer and this company and all I wanna do is close my account with them.

So worst company I’ve ever dealt with in my life. This company sent me a check for $4000. The very next day they canceled it. My account is now -$2000 and they cannot give me an answer on why my check was canceled. I’ve been given four different reasons of why my check was canceled. They can’t give me a date on when they’re going to re-issue a check. I’ve been told that it’s been processed and then told that it has not been processed. This makes absolutely no sense.

Paid for this insurance with the Federal Government. Very bad experience. Closed my account/benefits once, appealed and got it back. Via correspondence they said my benefits were two years and 3 months. Later retracted saying it was an error. They made adjustments to my monthly benefits creating a debt. They sold the debt to a third party (lawyer) before the claim ended, previous to communicating the amount of the debt, and without giving me opportunity to pay or appeal the debt. My credit score was affected. They conducted an “independent” review when I appealed…After the amount was thrown to delinquency…Then lied in the results saying that they had “tried” to communicate with me in reference to the debt. I told them it was illegal to throw the debt to delinquency and sell to a third party prior to notifying me of the created debt, prior to the closure of the claim and prior to letting me appeal. They denied saying it was legal.

I attempted to buy additional life insurance just so my family wouldn't have the burden of my home mortgage in the event of my unexpected passing. My initial health screening resulted in me being declined for a preexisting condition that I am managing well. When I called to ask if I was declined only because of that condition, the representative got all cagey and simply said I should send in medical records for reevaluation. I was declined again. Avoid this company at all costs. They are stuck in the 90s with the way they treat their clients.

If your employer uses this company for their 401k or any insurance needs, do yourself a favor and look for alternative employment. This company is so inept and disorganized, you feel dirty working with them. If you have a 401k through your employer, ask HR if they work with you to retain the financial services of another provider. When you need your money, they will act like no one knows what is going on and after being shipped to a foreign country for assistance, you will come to believe that yes they are inept. You can use their company website email, but no one will reply.

I got in an accident and was thankful to have recently signed up for short term disability. Then I started having to fill out multiple forms from various doctors. They all charge between $20-25 dollars each to sign medical forms. After the money from FMLA was deducted, I received $25 a week from the standard. It was more of a headache, time and money spent than I got from them. In the future, I am just going to have 6 months of my pay saved up in an emergency fund and not deal with the headache and of this process while I am injured for nothing.

Very bad customer experience from the start- unable to access account or funds after several calls and emails. Unwilling to make the process simple- essentially lost all my deposits due to predatory fees. If your company is using The Standard, write to HR to eliminate it.