Wellington Insurance Review & Complaints: Home Insurance (2023)

Wellington Insurance Group represents a group of insurance companies that provide homeowners insurance quotes on three different levels, based on what they call triaged risk. This means they will work with a number of different insurers, including their own, to place people into risk categories appropriately.

Keep reading our review to find out more about its insurance coverage options and business performance.

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Who is Wellington Insurance Group?

Wellington Insurance traces its roots back to 1988, when it was founded in Fort Worth, Texas. Their headquarters remain there today. Formerly known as Frontier General Insurance Agency, the company changed its name to Wellington Risk Insurance Agency, which is a subsidiary of Wellington Insurance Group, in 2011.

This insurer provides a risk triage service that analyses homeowners risk level and needs while connecting them to one of their admitted insurance carriers throughout the state of Texas. Their own company, Wellington Insurance Company, is just one of the insurance carriers with which they place people for coverage. Other insurers include:

• Companion Property & Casualty
• Service Insurance Company/Pillar Insurance
• Worth Casualty
• CastlePoint National Insurance
• Palomar Specialty Insurance
• Torus National Insurance
• State National Insurance

The company’s products are sold through these insurers with a network of agents, operating throughout Texas. The website is likely to be confusing to many people since it presents the company more as an agency and financial services company rather than as an insurance company. Due to the unique nature of their insurance offerings, their market share isn’t quite as large as some other insurers. Online services are available for those insured through the company, including policy management. People are sometimes focused on the best car insurance companies that sell online, but there are home insurance policies that can be purchased online, too.

What are Wellington Insurance policies?

Wellington offers three levels of smart options for homeowners insurance coverage. Each level is tailored to a specific category of risk, including homes that might not qualify for a standard homeowners insurance policy in the traditional insurance industry.

Select

The highest level of coverage available, this named perils policy covers 16 different perils. It includes replacement cost coverage for the dwelling, other structures, and for personal property. It also provides liability coverage of up to $500,000 and medical coverage of up to $5,000.

Standard

The middle of the road policy from Wellington covers 12 named perils. Like the select, replacement cost is provided for the dwelling, other structures, and personal property. This policy offers only a maximum of $300,000 in liability coverage and $2,000 in medical payments.

This policy also has a named perils dwelling fire option that has an actual cash value coverage that provides a loss payment for personal property and other structures, although there is only an option for replacement cost if the dwelling is owner-occupied.

Value

This policy is a basic, affordable option for homes that do not qualify for higher levels of residential property insurance coverage. Available as both a homeowners and a dwelling fire policy option, this level provides for 8 named perils and is an actual cash value policy. Liability protection is available for up to $100,000 and medical payments up to $2,000.

As discussed, Wellington uses a system of risk factors to triage each customer and determine which of these three levels is right. As with most insurance companies, the lower the risk level of the home, the higher the level of coverage for which it will qualify, favoring safer insurance clients. Even at their highest level, the Wellington Select plan, coverage is limited when compared to high-level plans from larger companies, an indication that Wellington targets their products towards higher risks. Very few insurers, even amongst the reputable names, will even consider these high-risk insurance clients.

Are Wellington Insurance group rates competitive?

Wellington does not offer online quoting, and they write policies through a number of different insurers and at several levels. As a result, we are unable to offer an accurate price comparison and it is difficult to make an estimate as to what sort of premiums each of the insurers will offer.

However, it is highly unlikely that a company like Wellington will offer rates that are competitive with national insurance companies, particularly those that are tiered at the higher risk level. Since Wellington sells insurance through agents, they also have commissions to pay, which generally requires additional capital; this ends up feeling like ransom payments for their insurance clients.

What about Wellington Risk insurance claims?

Wellington accepts claims in several ways. A claim can be filed through an agent or via their Wellington Risk Insurance phone number: 1-800-447-6465 available 24 hours a day. Claims services can also be contacted via fax: 1-800-800-4049 or email at: [email protected]

The website states that there is an online filing option, but does not indicate where this can be done. It is likely that customers must use their policyholder login to access the Wellington customer portal in order to use this service.

Aside from how to file a claim, the website provides very little in the way of details regarding the claims process. It is likely a standard process of investigation, benefit determination, and settlement, taking a typical amount of time for insurers of that caliber.

It is unclear how claims are handled for the affiliated companies through which Wellington places risks.

How is consumer research and complaints?

Wellington Insurance Group, Wellington Financial Services as listed on the BBB, has a B+ rating. Although the company is not accredited on the BBB, there are 14 customer complaints listed – five of which have been closed in the last 12 months.

The current BBB rating for Wellington has increased since our last review of this company, which is a good sign for the company’s reputation. The BBB drops ratings quickly for any failure to respond to a complaint because the prior rating was lower due to Wellington’s lack of response to one claim, the new improved rate shows the company has taken note and action towards improving their customer service.

If you need help, you can call the Wellington Insurance Customer Service phone number: (800) 880-0474.

Overall there are very few reviews of Wellington Insurance anywhere online, which makes it difficult to form a clear picture of their reputation. There are no major red flags to state at this time. You can find other reviews of insurance companies online at a review directory.

What is Wellington’s financial strength?

Below are some sites that offer Wellington Insurance reviews of the company’s financial strength rating.

Rating Company	Grade	Financial Outlook
AM Best	B+	Stable
Fitch	N/A	N/A
S&P	N/A	N/A

What is the bottom line?

Wellington Insurance is likely to cause some confusion; they insure through several companies and present themselves not as an insurance company but as an agency, although they do have an insurance company as a subsidiary — a fact that is mentioned minimally on their website; this gives the appearance of poor management, or lack of communication of their services. This company is highly unlikely to provide competitive rates for most, however, those who are having difficulty getting coverage may need to consider looking into Wellington.

Anyone who is relatively low risk will probably find better coverage and a better premium going with a national company. With the right plan of attack, these types of insurance clients could save thousands of dollars by just doing their research and comparison shopping.

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