Allegations of racism are often tough to prove, but especially so in homeowners’ insurance, where insurers have a lot of discretion and don’t always provide detailed explanations for why claims are denied, the New York Times reported. Since company representatives often verify claims and assess the credibility of a claimant through home visits, face-to-face interactions and other measures, there can be room for bias. While claims disputes are hardly uncommon in the industry, many Black customers say they feel treated unfairly because of their race — something that Jeff Major, a Manhattan-based public adjuster who haggles with insurance companies on behalf of policyholders over their claims, has witnessed in his line of work. “You can actually see a difference between a Caucasian family and an African-American, Hispanic or Asian family,” Major said. Insurers keep a tight lid on their policy sales and claims data. They have long argued that the size and timing of payouts, and the neighborhoods where claims are registered and addressed, are proprietary information, and that sharing that data would hurt their ability to compete. They guard it so zealously that even most regulators don’t have detailed information about how insurers assess individual claims. Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group, said that claims data was private because payouts were considered “losses” and that revealing them would put insurers “at a competitive disadvantage to each other.” Where data is publicly available, such as auto insurance, researchers have found that policies discriminate against Black drivers by charging them higher premiums. But homeowners’ insurance has been opaque.
