The Standard Insurance Company Reviews

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.

I’m on long term disability, they have been absolutely terrible to deal with, they dictate everything and the hoops that I had to deal with in the beginning were horrible, they are a horrible company and don’t care about people, their mail correspondence is sent first class when dictating what they want but a check is sent at the cheapest way. They make it hard to just get direct deposit and if you upset the system, you’re in for a problem! I turned 66 and they said that my benefits are over, so now what! I Was ruined by their policies and I will lose my house because of them! Don’t consider them by any means!

There is a $75 fee for rolling over funds to a new account. Makes no sense, this is a multimillion dollar company--there's no way it costs them $75 to send a check and close an account. Predatory company.

The accidental insurance is a joke and so is the company. You talk to them and it’s always in the mail. When you want answers they tell why they denied you and you call them out on the lies and they tell you the paperwork is in the mail. Terrible company and people. It’s always easier to let people down by mail. This is why people hate insurance companies.

Useless. Worthless. Paperwork. More paperwork. Didn't you get our letter we sent weeks ago? Crooked thieves. Run, run, run away. I do HR. It's a shitty cheap benefit that doesn't pay. BEWARE! Don't sign up.

The standard has very poor customer service, they need some additional information from my doctor office to complete my short-term disability claim but they claim to have contacted the office 3 times and their policy is that they allow and now it’s my problem to get the information they want.

This is the worst company to deal with my Short term disability claim. They have had me waiting to get the disability checks for almost a month now so not only am I trying to recover from the emergency surgery I had to have but also stressing about paying my bills. I have had to take out loans to get things done and this SHOULD NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN!!! Also I can't believe they have to mail out checks and cannot do a direct deposit. I pray that NO ONE that works with me has to go through this. I don't understand how a company like this can still be around after such horrible service they provide for their customers!

During a hardship, was told on the phone my disbursement was 5900$, was not told that my loan of 4000 would be deducted and federal taxes of 1090$ would be taken, making the disbursement zero dollars. I feel they did this financially in their favor disregarding the hardship, no way would someone request zero dollars in hardship after quoted 5900. I had vested, rolled over, I do feel ripped off by this company because had I been told correct info over the phone, the 5900 could have stayed in and grown as I was current on my monthly loan payments. I find them to be unethical, so beware and don’t take them at their word, they have no problem taking your entire vested retirement amount and I was told in fact, it is what it is when asked if could be reversed.

The most awful customer service. I have never written a bad review for anybody but I am so fed up at this point. I have called multiple times trying to roll over my funds into my main 401K. They never have answers and it's a back and forth game. The company I use to work for chose this company and I have no idea why because they are the WORST. I just lost hundreds of dollars because they aren't willing to help me roll over my funds. Not only is this the worst company and worst customer service but they are hard to get ahold of.

This is the absolute worst company in the entire universe. It took months to approve my STD claim. You can totally forget about having your LTD claim paid as you will get the runaround and no communication outside of a letter saying your claim is being processed when you call the company. You will never be able to reach the claims adjustor or the supervisor, only some pleasant reps who will take your message. They tell you your claim will be process in 10 days, well my LTD claim hasn't gotten paid and I am 8 months and counting. They lied for months about sending med rec request to my PCP, my PCP decided to give me the med recs to send of which I did THREE times only for them to sit the and my claim not get paid. This company is a fraud. This is very stressful to people who are already ill.

I can't believe the pros to this company say quick payment of claims because that is a bold faced lie! I have been trying to get my short term disability claim processed since September 2024 and were now almost to March 2025. The adjuster insisted she needed records dating months back and said they were waiting on them but my doctors records team kept saying they didn't get a request. I sent them the documents myself and they said it was approved then called back same day with more questions looking for another way to deny the claim. Here we are 3-4 weeks later and she wants more documentation again.

Got my name wrong so I couldn't transfer to new account until I sent documentation to fix it. I sent documentation to fix it and they then proceed to spell my name the same wrong way as before. When it finally got fixed, now on my tax document it is spelled wrong and they have the wrong address. Incredibly incompetent, I wouldn't trust them with money, or anything in the future and would advise everyone against it too.

An employee of my organization has been on Short Term Disability since 12/2/2024. A claim was initiated with the Standard on 12/4/2024. Two weeks following the required seven-day waiting period, my employee was expecting a STD benefit payment, none arrived. My organization paid the employee during this period since he hadn’t received any payment. Contact was initiated with The Standard by myself, the employee and the employee’s spouse multiple times over the month of January. Taking the holidays into account, we were patient. Contact was made with The Standard nearly on a daily basis the past two weeks, on days that The Standard wasn’t contacted it was because we were promised action the following days.

Horrible. Tons of paperwork. They cut me off the day of my procedure. Constantly wanted more paperwork of the same kind my Dr filled out the first time. You pay premiums for protection and now I don't have money for food or my medication or my co payment for my follow up. Work won't let me back til my follow up. So why I was cut off? For profit I assume. When I go back to work I'll drop them fast and go with Allstate. Too many loopholes and paperwork and think they know more than your Dr. Even my Dr was appalled because I got cut off on my procedure day and said you have 4 weeks yet and need a follow up. Now on to complain to the better business bureau. Shameful

I can't even tell you how bad this company. The company sent two checks we only received one at the time. I did a deposit with it and paid all my bills. 3 days later they put a stop payment on it and totally wiped us out. My bank was kind enough to cover all the checks that I wrote for the mortgage company and car payments. And everything else. But basically they had to use all of our savings and anything else that we had in our accounts to pay for that. 18 months later, I am still 3 months behind on my mortgage. And when I called them to ask them why this happened, they asked me "Well didn't you get the letter saying that we were putting a stop payment on it?" I said back to them, "If I received a letter like that do you think I would have deposited it." If I could sue them for all this anguish and all this is done in the relationship in this household I would not heartbeat. We are broke from them and life has been terrible. Shame on all of them. If you can avoid using this company. Run. They don't deserve even one star.

MAN, this place is just god-awful. They messed up my long-term disability insurance a month ago. I have been on the phone with them almost every day since yet still, no one seems to know anything about my account. I ask the same question to 3 different people and got 3 different answers. I have been without my payments for a month now. No one can tell me what happened. They promise me a call back literally a dozen times and not a single return phone call. I have had to get the Oregon State Insurance Commissioner involved, and I still do not have my $$$. Now with 40 cents in my account for over a month and no one at this company seems to care. One of the worst experiences of my life. HORRIBLE.

They held my 401K funds that I requested to roll-over to another account due to employment termination and hiring with another company, stating that they cannot roll-over the remaining balance I have and the account will be locked for a year from roll-over. Calling them connects you to a call center and they use the speaker so you cannot hear the representatives. They didn't know the connection was live and thought I was on hold while they were laughing and chatting with other representatives. Meanwhile, I'm not an attorney, but for a company to lock an account from rolling into another investment account seems legally questionable and unethical?

Please save your money and never use Standard insurance. One of the worst insurance I ever had for the past 30 years. 100 percent useless compare to any other insurance. If your car is not starting they don't even jump start. :(

My employer went with The Standard as an additional long term disability company. I originally applied in August and in November they said they finally received all my medical documents and would make a decision. It has been 4 additional weeks and I have heard absolutely NOTHING! This is my only source of income and I have not received a dime. My adjuster Debra has answered the phone here and there and has called back 96 hours after my messages with no answers. My employer makes their premium payments on time but they do not pay claims.

Just awful all around. It appears to me their systems are so poor and outdated that details get dropped, claims are unreceived, and coverage can even lapse. Their website is bare bones and barely functions - eg, resetting my password required a call to customer support. In other words, the portal is useless in managing your insurance. To be fair, the customer support folks tried to help where they could but this is a company that does as little as possible for the user experience.

I opened 2 indexed annuities on a 5 year contract with the Standard in 2019, they were quick to do a roll over from another company that I was leaving, boy was that a mistake. Be sure you read the fine print and understand before you sign anything. They advertised a 5% top based on anniversary date of account opening based on what the S & P 500 closing rate on anniversary. 1st year I got 5% on both, 2nd year they dropped rate to 4.5%, saying the 5% was a teaser rate. On 2nd anniversary I got the 4.5%. So for the 3rd year they dropped it again to 4% even though the stock market was still going up. Then on 3rd year I got the 4% on anniversary. But what did they do. They dropped the rate to 3.5%, so on the next anniversary the S&P 500 was lower than the year before so I got 0%, Think about it, I had $150,000 set there all year, didn't earn a penny..

The Standard 401K is very unprofessional and do not value their customers and how the customers' money supports their business structure. One July, 2024 we requested a loan of our 401K money and we was advised it was approved and processed. On Thursday, August 15, 2024, we reached out to notify them that the check had not been received and was asked to allow a few more days. We called again on Monday, August 19, 2024 and was told by an agent that he would stop payment on the check that was sent and he would send us an email stating that another check had been sent overnight.

I’m extremely disappointed that company switched to The Standard. I didn’t know they offshored their customer service to India and that’s a huge issue for me. The customer service reps are incompetent and barely speak English. They can’t actually help you with anything. They lie to you with ease. I needed to change my 401k loan ACH bank form because my bank account was closing. I emailed The Standard on 07/21/2024 an signed and dated form. I got email back verifying that they received an email from me too. A few days later I faxed the same form to them on 07/24/2024 and again received a verification that the fax went through. I then took the same form and mailed it with USPS to The Standard in Oregon. So they got the same signed and dated form from me 3 times. They still managed to charge my old bank account for some reason.

My husband had a stroke, with a level 5 while in the hospital. Made a claim with the Standard, sent 8 fax over 3 months and they said they didn’t receive it, so I decided to send a letter that required a signature, then they said they received it. Now they did want updated information because it’s been so long

ABSOLUTELY THE WORST INSURANCE EVER!!!! It has taken me 6 weeks and counting to get a simple reimbursement for an eye exam. I have had to email them new paperwork on a weekly basis. Each time I get an email back stating I need to send another form, or they need more information, or I need to call the dr and get their TIN. And most of this had to be emailed more than once. Each time I was told the info I sent was not correct, and I needed to send something else. The first time I was told the incorrect email address so that first week of effort was a total bust. 6 weeks!!!! Thank goodness my company changed to a new dental/vision carrier.