Rating Automobile Insurance

Triple-I's Chief Actuary, James Lynch, testified before National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) on April 15, 2021.

In this presentation to the NCOIL, Triple-I Chief Actuary James Lynch debunks recent media articles and presents an exploration that looks for rate disparities in different auto insurance markets, including Illinois, Missouri Texas, and California. Said Lynch in his remarks, “Triple-I has been asked today to comment specifically on research conducted under the auspices of Consumer Reports magazine. Consumer Reports has a well-deserved reputation for rigorous, independent product testing. Unfortunately, in this particular case, its research fell short. The study, conducted in conjunction with ProPublica in 2017, attempted to be rigorous. It purported to find “substantial disparities in auto insurance prices between majority white and majority nonwhite neighborhoods. These disparities [it continued] were larger than risk levels could explain.” Lynch continued, “The study, unfortunately, made elemental errors that, once corrected, showed the exact opposite of what ProPublica asserted: auto insurers charge prices that properly reflect the actual risk in majority white and majority nonwhite neighborhoods.”