Luxury Institute Customer Experience Survey: USAA, State Farm, and Northwestern Mutual Rated Top Three Life Insurers in Customer Experience

Business Wire, May 15, 2006

NEW YORK -- USAA significantly outperforms its closest rivals, State Farm and Northwestern Mutual, as the life insurance brand that delivers "the best customer experience as rated and ranked by their own high net worth clients," according to the new Luxury Customer Experience Index survey (LCEI) from the New York-based Luxury Institute. USAA earned a score of 82.4 while State Farm and Northwestern Mutual scored 74.5 and 73.1, respectively.

High net worth clients rated 20 of the largest national life insurance brands based on their individual experiences. These included: Aetna, AFLAC, AIG, Allstate, AXA, Equitable, Chase Insurance, Hartford, ING Life Insurance, John Hancock, Lincoln National, MassMutual, MetLife, Nationwide, New York Life, Northwestern Mutual, Pacific Life, Principal Financial Group, Prudential, State Farm, and USAA.

"USAA is the top rated life insurance provider on all four pillars of the Luxury Customer Experience Index (LCEI)," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. "USAA dominates the other life insurers most notably with respect to customer loyalty/retention and the willingness of wealthy customers to refer the company to others. USAA also leads in terms of the perceived price-worthiness of its products. Allstate and AFLAC compete relatively well on this dimension of the index. Wealthy consumers are sending a message that, as best customers and prospects, they fully expect a great customer experience, regardless of the selling channel. This is especially true of a highly commoditized and 'low trust category' such as life insurance."

This new survey, the Luxury Customer Experience Index (LCEI), creates a set of measures and indices that capture critical drivers of customer experience and goes far beyond traditional customer satisfaction measures. The LCEI delivers a critical set of metrics based on the four "pillars" of Customer Experience including: Experience Drivers, Price Worthiness, Customer Retention and Customer Referral for each brand in a category. Experience Drivers include brand effectiveness, brand attitude, brand environment, and the brand's problem resolution index. For the LCEI, the Luxury Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 2,100 households with a minimum of $200,000 in gross annual income and minimum net worth of $750,000 (including home equity).

About the Luxury Institute

The Luxury Institute is the uniquely independent and objective research institution that is the trusted voice of the high net worth consumer. The Institute provides a portfolio of proprietary quantitative research that guides and educates high net-worth individuals, and the companies that cater to them, on leading edge trends, wealthy consumer ratings and rankings of luxury brands, and best practices. To reach the Luxury Institute, please call 646-792-2669 or go to www.luxuryinstitute.com.