Claims closed without payment reached 44% of homeowners claims resolved in 2025 at several of the largest United States insurers, according to Wall Street Journal analysis. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley wrote to six insurers on 2 October 2026 demanding ten years of claims data. Replies are due by 16 October.
The letters cover homeowners and personal auto policies in the United States only, and the figures are national aggregates rather than any individual policyholder’s experience. The insurance industry disputes the central statistic, arguing that a claim closed without payment is not the same thing as a claim that was denied.
What the Senators Asked For, and By When
The two senators sent letters on 2 October 2026 to six personal lines insurers and set a reply deadline of 16 October 2026. Warren, a Democrat, and Hawley, a Republican, made the request jointly.
The companies that received letters are State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Farmers, Liberty Mutual and American Family. The requests cover ten years of homeowners and personal auto claims data, and ask the insurers to break it down and explain it in several specific ways:
- Claims by peril and by reason for no payment: separating deductibles, policy exclusions, outright denials and claims the customer withdrew.
- Appeals and disputed claims: data on how many closed claims were challenged and what happened to them.
- Policy changes since 2015: any changes the insurer has made to its claims-handling policies over that period, and an explanation for the rising share of claims closed without payment.
- Employee incentives: descriptions of any incentive programme linked to claim payments or denial rates.
- Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics: how the insurer uses these tools in claims handling, and what safeguards apply.
A letter from senators is a request for information, not a subpoena or an enforcement action. No regulator has opened a proceeding against any of the six companies on the basis of these letters, and no finding of wrongdoing has been made.
The Numbers the Senators Cited
The senators drew their claims figures from Wall Street Journal reporting published in May and August 2026, not from their own analysis or from a government dataset.
| Claim type | Closed without payment, 2025 | In 2016 |
|---|---|---|
| Homeowners | 44% | 36% |
| Auto liability and medical | 45% | About 35% |
The homeowners figure covers the five largest homeowners insurers. Both readings describe claims resolved in a single year across large national books of business, and neither indicates what any particular household should expect, because outcomes turn on the policy wording, the peril, the deductible and the state.
As of 7 October 2026, no insurer had published the ten-year dataset the senators requested, and the 16 October deadline had not passed.
What “Closed Without Payment” Actually Counts
This is the heart of the dispute, and it matters because the phrase describes an accounting outcome rather than a decision. A claim is recorded as closed without payment whenever the file is shut and no money moved from that insurer to that policyholder. Several very different situations produce that same record:
- Below the deductible: the loss was genuine but smaller than the excess the policyholder agreed to carry, so no payment is due.
- Paid by someone else’s insurer: in an auto collision, the other driver’s liability insurer may pay, which closes the file at the first insurer with no payment from it.
- Withdrawn by the policyholder: the customer decided not to proceed, often to protect a claims record.
- Outside the policy’s terms: flood damage, for example, is generally not covered by a standard United States homeowners policy and requires separate flood cover.
- Administrative closure: duplicate filings, or files closed for missing documentation.
- A denial: the insurer assessed the claim and refused it.
Only the last of those is a denial in the ordinary sense. Because the statistic groups all six together, a 44% rate of claims closed without payment is not a 44% denial rate, and the published figures do not separate the categories. That separation is precisely what the senators have asked the six insurers to supply.
What the Insurers and the Industry Say
The industry’s response has been to challenge the measure rather than the arithmetic. The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, a trade body representing mutual insurers, said that “a closed claim is not the same as a denied claim”, noting that many claims fall below the deductible and others involve losses such as flood that a policy likely does not cover.
Neil Alldredge, the association’s chief executive, wrote a letter to the editor after the Wall Street Journal’s 9 August report, which the paper declined to publish. According to the association, his argument was that the analysis counted claims paid by other drivers’ insurers, withdrawn claims, claims falling outside policy terms and below-deductible claims as though they were refusals.
The association also offered counter-figures: it said insurers closed 7.35 million homeowners claims with payment in 2024, roughly one payment for every 14 policies in force, and that from 1990 through 2024 homeowners insurance averaged a 2.9% return on net worth against 7.7% for property and casualty insurance overall. Those figures come from the trade body and have not been independently verified here.
Two of the six insurers commented publicly. State Farm said claims evaluation depends on the facts and the coverage purchased, and on whether a loss is covered. USAA said claims closed without payment arise from a variety of circumstances and that its focus is on helping members recover from a loss. The other four had not commented at the time of the trade press reports on 6 October 2026. State Farm has separately been expanding its claims workforce.
The Cost Backdrop the Letters Describe
The senators set the claims figures against rising premiums and falling coverage, and these are the figures they cited rather than independent findings.
- Homeowners premiums: up 70% nationally between 2019 and 2025, a figure drawn from a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report.
- Auto premiums: average full-coverage premiums up 31% between 2023 and 2025, reaching $2,638 a year.
- Uninsured homeowners: up from 5% in 2019 to 12% in 2024.
- Industry profits: the letters cite record industry profits of $136 billion in 2025 and the strongest underwriting profitability in 20 years.
From those, the senators wrote that “record profits of insurance companies raise questions about whether increasingly aggressive claims-handling practices, including tactics to delay payments, are contributing to higher margins”. That is the question they have put to the companies; it is not a conclusion, and the companies have not yet answered it. All of these are averages across the United States market, and a premium average is not what any individual household pays.
Who Actually Regulates Claims Handling
Insurance in the United States is regulated by the states, not by Congress. Each state and territory has its own insurance department that licenses insurers, reviews rate filings and handles consumer complaints about claims, and unfair claims settlement practices are governed by state law. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners coordinates among those regulators but is not itself a federal regulator.
That means the formal route for a dispute about a specific claim runs through the insurer’s own appeals process and then the insurance department of the state where the policy was issued, and the applicable rules differ from one state to the next. Recent state-level action shows how much the terms vary by jurisdiction: California enacted nine insurance bills with five different start dates, and New York is changing how auto rate filings are approved.
What Is Still Unresolved
Several things remain open, and the deadline is the nearest of them.
- Whether the insurers will comply: the 16 October 2026 deadline is one the senators set, and a congressional information request of this kind is not independently enforceable.
- What the underlying data shows: until the breakdown by reason for non-payment exists, the share of closures that are genuine denials is unknown.
- Whether the Wall Street Journal analysis stands: the paper’s methodology and the trade body’s objections to it have not been adjudicated by any regulator or court.
- Whether anything follows: no hearing, legislation or regulatory proceeding has been announced as a result of the letters.
The senators’ own framing of the stake is in the letters themselves. According to the Senate Banking Committee release, they wrote that “when consumers purchase insurance, they reasonably expect their insurance coverage will protect them when disaster strikes”.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does Claims Closed Without Payment Mean?
It means an insurer shut the claim file without paying the policyholder. That includes losses below the deductible, claims paid instead by another party’s insurer, claims the customer withdrew, losses outside the policy’s terms, administrative closures and outright denials. It is not the same as a denial rate.
Which Insurers Received the Senators’ Letters?
State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Farmers, Liberty Mutual and American Family. The letters were sent on 2 October 2026 by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, and cover homeowners and personal auto business in the United States.
What Is the Deadline for Insurers to Respond?
16 October 2026. The senators asked for ten years of claims data broken down by peril and by the reason no payment was made, along with information on appeals, employee incentives and the use of artificial intelligence in claims handling.
Does a 44% Figure Mean Nearly Half of Claims Are Denied?
No. The 44% figure, which covers homeowners claims resolved in 2025 at the five largest United States homeowners insurers, counts every claim closed without a payment, including below-deductible and withdrawn claims. The published data does not separate denials from the other categories.
Where Are Insurance Claim Disputes Handled in the United States?
Claims handling is regulated at state level. Disputes run through the insurer’s appeals process and then the insurance department of the state where the policy was issued. Rules on unfair claims settlement practices differ by state, so the applicable process depends on where the policy was written.
