On October 5, 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley sent the same letter to six large home insurers. The letter went to State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Farmers, Liberty Mutual, and American Family. The senators cited Wall Street Journal reporting on how often claims now end with no payment at all.
The five largest home insurers failed to pay on over 44 percent of claims resolved in 2025. The Journal put the figure at 36 percent a decade earlier. The senators questioned whether increasingly aggressive claims handling practices were contributing to higher margins while insurer profits stood at record levels.
That is their question, asked in writing, on the record. This page does not answer it. This page lays out two columns of public record from the same years. One column holds what the chief executives were paid. The other holds what regulators, examiners, and sworn witnesses documented about the claims. You can read both columns and decide what the question is worth.
The record in one screen:
- The share of resolved homeowners claims closed without payment climbed from 36 percent to over 44 percent in a decade, per Wall Street Journal reporting cited by the senators.
- Florida regulators penalized 10 insurers a combined $2,575,000 for claims-handling violations across two 2025 actions, in Hurricanes Ian and Idalia.
- Allstate reported its chief executive's 2025 total compensation at $22,920,898 in its 2026 proxy statement.
- Slide reported its chief executive received more than $21 million in 2024 compensation in its SEC filing.
- One Florida carrier's exam counted 2,236 Ian claims closed without payment against 3,129 closed with payment.
- One Ian estimate near $500,000 came back at about $13,000 in files the Washington Post reviewed.
If your own claim is still open, or it closed with less than your damage cost, start with a Free 21-Point Storm Inspection. We document the full loss and tell you plainly where your claim stands. Call 800.511.2240.
The question now sits in Senate files
The Warren and Hawley letter asked each carrier for its own numbers. The senators requested data on claims closed without payment, claim processing times, and unpaid claims. They set a response date of October 16, 2026.
The letter did not accuse any one company of a violation. It put a national trend next to a national result and asked the industry to explain both. The trend is the rising share of claims that resolve with no payment. The result is record industry profit in the same period.
Two senators from opposite ends of the Senate do not sign many letters together. When they do, the paper trail is worth reading in full. The sections below are that trail, carrier by carrier and exam by exam.
Column one: what the chief executives were paid
Allstate's 2026 proxy statement reports that chief executive Tom Wilson received $22,920,898 in total compensation for 2025. That figure is the SEC's own measure. It covers salary, bonuses, and stock awards for one year.
Slide Insurance Holdings reported in its SEC Form S-1 that chief executive Bruce Lucas received more than $21 million in 2024 compensation, in salary, bonuses, and stock awards. News reports put the figure at $21.2 million. The pay sits at the holding company level. The holding company owns the Florida carrier along with other businesses.
Both figures are public. Both come from filings the companies made themselves. Neither figure is an accusation. Each one is a number a board approved and a company reported.
Column two: what Florida regulators documented
Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation ran market conduct examinations on how carriers handled Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Idalia claims. On September 2, 2025, the Office penalized eight insurers a combined $2,075,000. On November 3, 2025, two more penalties finalized the program at 10 companies and $2,575,000 in total penalties.
The findings repeated across the exams. Examiners documented late acknowledgment of claim communications. They documented adjusters who were not properly appointed. They documented missing required disclosures and failures to give policyholders the Homeowners Claims Bill of Rights. They documented interest that carriers owed and did not pay. In some cases, they documented carriers that failed to pay or deny a claim within the statutory 90 days.
One exam shows the pattern at a single carrier. The Office's April 1, 2024 examination of Florida Peninsula counted 3,129 residential Ian claims closed with payment and 2,236 closed without payment in the exam period. In the claims examiners sampled, 5 percent drew a late acknowledgment of claim communications. In 18.01 percent, the file lacked the adjuster identification the law requires.
Slide sits inside this record too. On November 3, 2025, the Office fined Slide $250,000 for Ian and Idalia claims-handling violations. The findings included unappointed adjusters and missing required disclosures. The fine landed on the regulated Florida carrier. The $21 million pay figure sits at its holding company. Both facts are dated, sourced, and public.
What sworn witnesses told the Senate
The pay and the penalties are filings. The next part of the record is testimony, given under oath on May 13, 2025, before a Senate subcommittee examining claims practices after recent disasters.
Two independent adjusters who worked Allstate Helene claims testified that corporate reviewers altered or deleted parts of their damage estimates. They testified that adjusters who resisted the reductions risked reassignment. Allstate's chief claims officer answered on the same record. He said Allstate does not retaliate against adjusters and does not routinely change their estimates.
Homeowner Natalia Migal testified about her own Helene claim. Allstate valued her loss at about $46,000. Her side's sworn proof of loss documented $497,548. Allstate told the Senate the claim settled for about $100,000. All three numbers are in the hearing record.
State Farm's operations vice president, Michael Keating, addressed a Helene policyholder directly at the hearing. He apologized and said State Farm had made mistakes in handling her claim. His written testimony set out the company's own figures. State Farm handled about 129,600 Helene and Milton property claims in the Southeast and paid nearly $1.28 billion, with complaints on under 1 percent of those claims. That is the company's account of itself, in its own filing, and it belongs in this record too.
The estimate files the newspapers read
After Ian, the Washington Post reviewed original and modified claim files for a dozen policyholders. The reductions ran from 45 percent to 97 percent. One estimate near $500,000 was cut to about $13,000. In two cases, the cut dropped the claim below the deductible, and the claim paid nothing.
60 Minutes read a Heritage file from the same storm. A field adjuster estimated the Rapkin family's damage at $231,368.57. The carrier's revised figure was $15,469.48. Heritage's chief executive disputed the report and called the altered-report accusation wrong. His dispute is part of the record, and it is noted here the same way Allstate's answer is noted above.
Florida answered the estimate fights with a rule. In October 2024, the state barred desk adjusters from changing a field estimate without identifying the change, explaining it, and naming who made it. That rule is now part of the same public record as the files that produced the fight.
Your Isaias claim sits inside this record
Hurricane Isaias is the newest Florida storm in the line. The Office of Insurance Regulation counts nearly 55,000 Isaias claims filed statewide. Just over 3,500 have closed with payment. Nearly 8,500 have already closed without payment, as of October 20, 2026. We track those counts claim by claim in our Isaias claims by the numbers post.
The carrier's adjuster represents the carrier. A public adjuster represents you. That split decides what your file holds. Policyholder Advocacy Group documents the full loss, room by room and system by system, and presents the claim under the terms and conditions of your policy. That is how you pursue the full amount your policy owes you, instead of the first number a desk review produces. Nathan Sheppard has worked Florida claims for 17 years, and this firm has represented policyholders since 2012. We carry the documentation fight so you do not have to carry it alone.
Deadlines still run. Report a new Isaias claim by October 9, 2027. Reopen or add to a claim by April 9, 2028. A closed claim is not always a finished claim, and the record above shows what a documented second look can be worth.
On cost: For residential claims, Florida caps the fee at 10% during the first year after a state of emergency declaration. And 10% of nothing is nothing. Without representation, many homeowners walk away with far less or nothing at all.
The question is yours now
Two columns sit on this page. One holds pay a board approved. The other holds findings a regulator signed, testimony a witness swore to, and files two newsrooms read line by line. Nobody at this firm needs to tell you how to read them side by side.
If your Isaias claim closed without payment, or the payment never reached your damage, get the loss documented in full. Start with a Free 21-Point Storm Inspection or call 800.511.2240. We tell you plainly whether more is owed.