Applied Underwriters Incorporated

Very deceptive company — consumer beware! Applied Underwriters lures clients with very low worker comp rates but requires that they use their payroll service. AU refuses to disclose what the Administrative fees by stating they are bundled with the Composite Rate. The AU agent verbally told me the fees should run between 1−2% of the payroll & I believed him. When the end of the year came around I asked AU what the Administrative fees had been and they still refused to disclose the amount we had paid. Using our own math it was over 3% of our payroll!!! One AU agent admitted we were correct but we were still stonewalled as we had nothing in writing — AU’s whole strategy to deflect & deceive & profit.

Wouldn’t renew for free! This is by far the worst payroll& workers company there is. I will save you all some time and fill you in, they quote you with low rates, then add A LOT of hidden fees in with payroll. They file your federal reports under THEIR federal ID number and then make it mandatory for your employees to receive disability through them and not the state. So many surprises once you sign up with them. Also, as the employer, any time I needed reports I got the run around. I should not have to explain why I need my own payroll information and reports that were filled on behalf of my company. Any positive reviews that this company receives is either from an agent that does not deal directly with them the way that an employer does or someone that doesn’t understand there statements and just signs off your employees state disability rights. In the end, I don’t even think I saved any money.

They treat claimants like dirt
They like to point the finger and blame others thereby distracting attention from their own negligence
They are the lowest that they come
If you are a claimant and they are the ins carrier… Get a lawyer as you will need it!

It is important to know that once you sign with them — you have leased them your employees. They file your taxes under their tax ID. I have nothing good to say about their payroll service — and don’t have enough time to tell all the nightmares. The workers comp is ok if you don’t mind paying deductibles. If you want control over your payroll — go somewhere else.

If I could give it negative stars, it would be –5 Stars.
They have the worse Customer Service I have EVER had with any establishment, including Fast Food.
We had them both as an insurance provider and payroll service. I had no problems with their insurance.
Working with the payroll agents was extremely frustrating on all levels (during our contractual agreement and after). All their fees are hidden and you cannot break them out yourself. God forbid you ask them to explain it to you, because they can’t either. They have canned responses and are just talking heads when they can’t answer the question.
As a client/​customer, all companies should provide you with copies of anything they file on your company’s behalf (especially to the IRS or EDD). They will not. They are cold in their tone on the phone, to the point of being rude.
When I asked them to provide me with a copy of what they sent to EDD, they said I needed something in writing from EDD requesting the information and they will send the information directly to EDD. WTH??? I then asked them to just verify the amount they filed, they said I need to send them something for EDD requesting the information and again they will communicate with EDD. What a bunch of BS!
Once you sign on with them. they have control of EVERYTHING and getting any information from them is nearly impossible.
Read all the reviews and decide for yourself. But mark my words, you will be very sorry if you sign up with them. It’s like signing with the Devil.

Not sure what is going on with everyone else but I have been a customer of Applied Underwriters going on 3 years now. I initially saved almost $ 10,000 the first year after switching from my old workers compensation company. These savings have actually gotten bigger each year since my rates have actually gone down each year! I don’t know of another insurance company crazy enough to do that, but I will take it.
Their apparently «horrible!» payroll service is definitely nothing amazing, but does it have to be? It’s nothing fancy or anything, and is more of the salisbury to ADP’s porterhouse, since it is pretty basic and they don’t have any fancy apps and what have you, but they have never screwed money up for me or anything. It gets the job done and doesn’t get in my way or require me to jump through hoops to report. Funny enough, they just started letting me email my reports in weekly, whereas before I had to fax them in. That was most of my complaints about the first two years working with them. Emailing them my payroll figures is a breeze. Even on my old handcrank-​operated Apple IIe computer, it probably takes me 5 minutes every week to send in.
They are pretty lenient on reporting, too. I have even gotten my employees paid after extenuating circumstances prevented me from reporting my payroll numbers for the week until late Thursday night for a FrIday payday. My guys woke up the next morning to money in their bank accounts. I am unaware if Applied Underwriters is run by wizards or not, but they came through for me that day! I was sweating it, honestly, but the company was able to get the direct deposits all correct and didn’t charge me a service fee or any sort of expedite fee for the hassle, despite what ADP and my accountant had done to me in the past under similar circumstances. To me, that seems like a company willing to go the extra mile for their customers. This coming from a guy who went in through the backdoor that day, just in case the employees’ checks didn’t go through! I knew as soon as I didn’t smell torch smoke and didn’t see any pitchforks that I was in the clear!
Oh yeah, about the Package Service Fees that some people said was hidden in fine print, I didn’t have any problems with that either. One of Applied’s employees even got on the phone with me to explain everything before I even signed up. I am by no means a big fish, either, so I am surprised they had time to answer my questions and quell my fears, most of which came from reading reviews on this fine website. Try getting that sort of attention at the State Fund (hint: you can’t!!)
It is really easy to see what everything is costing me every week, too, since I get a statement from them that shows what is premium and what is service fees, Not sure if every customer gets this breakout or if I am just special (my mom says I am, and she is an angel, so take that as you will!), but it is clear as day what I am paying for. The fact that my agent, for as hard as he works every year to show me different options, can’t find me something cheaper even without the payroll and accounting help that Applied Underwriters gives me tells me I have a pretty good deal going right now.
Now that I have been with them for a few years, I have met a few other guys in my field (truck driving) who are with Applied Underwriters and they seem to be pretty happy, as well.
Once again, not sure what happened to cause all of these negative reviews or if things were really just bad before I signed up, but I am sticking with them as long as they keep saving me money. No reason to assume that is ending any time soon.
Plus, their logo is a freaking St Bernard, you don’t get more bad-​A than that. Let’s be serious, here.

The workers comp from this company is a sort of a trap. They provide reasonable claim service, but they will hold onto deposit and premium refunds owed you for years and years.
In short, AU uses numerous approaches to over-​collect on your monthly premium– you put down high deposits, you pay monthly premiums based on their arbitrarily high estimates of your claims (not your actual claims) and apparently (based on at least one current lawsuit) they demand final premium payments in the last month of the 3-​year contract that are huge, based on jacking up reserves on open claims into the stratosphere.
These are not small numbers. At the end of three years on my contract, they will have collected and held nearly $ 150,000 in deposits alone, and this does not include the extra premiums they have collected that are likely due back to me some day.
Yes, they owe all this back. Most of us who buy insurance are used to audits with return premiums a few months after a policy expires. So that is the normal expectation I had. Now I found out they will hold my money for the entire 3-​year term, and likely for years after that.
In fact, from my reading they have no contractual commitment on how soon they will repay you. It can be years and years. This is all a game to find ways to get you to overpay advance premiums today and then hold on to them as long as possible so they can invest the money. I would encourage you to read the fine print of the reinsurance agreement that governs all this, but it is unreadable, using terms even experienced insurance professionals have never seen elsewhere. I encourage you to do what I failed to do – if you don’t understand it, don’t sign it!
UPDATE: I finally got an answer from Applied Underwriter’s customer service. They said two things 1) They confirmed that there is not deadline in the contract mandating that they return your money in any specific timeframe; and 2) That the typical customer gets their money back in 3 – 7 years after the contract ends. Realize that this means any deposits you put down when you sign the 3 year contract will not come back to you for 6 – 10 YEARS!
By the way, beware that Applied will offer you «teaser rates» that look very attractive. Study the rate charts though. These rates go up exponentially — not linearly — with even the first few dollars of claims such that in any reasonable set of circumstances you will likely be paying much closer to the max rather than the min rates.
Postscript: Note that Applied Underwriters has written me a letter threatening to sue me unless I take down this review.

If it could be negative stars it would be. This company certainly doesn’t represent what I believe Warren Buffet has been proud of over the years. They charge fees they won’t justify or breakdown. They refuse to escalated any complaint to upper management and display an attitude when asked. I had my agent call and they stonewalled him as well.
AT ALL COST, STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!
I’m going to the California Insurance commissioner Dave Jones for help. I attempted to cancel the policy and payroll program but they said it will cost me $ 8000 because of the 60 days left on the policy.
CROOKS!!!

Just started with this company. Their payroll department is not user friendly. Double taxing pay checks and not complete with the basics of payroll.
Users beware.

I have been with this company for over 3 years and they are HORRIBLE. When I first started with them they made claims they were moving into this century but that was a lie. The employees at Applied don’t even have access to email. Everything is done by hand on the employer end and faxed in like it is 1990.
Not one person is accountable. The employees will tell you they do not have supervisors if you ask to talk to them. A client paying this kind of money for WC and payroll services should not have to follow up with them on everything from garnishments to direct deposit forms submitted and not processed.
They seem like a good deal at first but they do not stop charging the amount for some of the employer paid taxes that should be capped out when an employee hits 7k… they keep charging it throughout the year.
I would not recommend this company to an enemy. Instead of making your life easier they do the exact opposite.

I hate AU (Applied Underwriters) a workers comp insurance! My injury date was 02/​05/​2014. I have a blown right bicep and torn ligament in right knee. These injuries are typically repaired within 3 – 10 days after injury. Just seen a surgeon today 06÷25÷14. He said it’s been so long he’s afraid to cut into my arm. He also asked if I’ve had any kind of treatment? I said if feeding me painkillers just so I go away is considered treatment? Other than that, NO they haven’t done crap. We always have to fight for approvals. Now I have to look forward to be disabled the rest of my life cause this system of uneducated people can’t even run a stupid ass system. Dr. put me on P.T. for 6 weeks. If no improvement he said he’ll have to do surgery on my arm. He didn’t even address my dam torn ligament in my knee. That has to wait till 09÷05÷14. 8 months, YES eight months after injury. WTF. Really? ??? W.T.F???

Shocked to see all of these bad reviews. As an agent I have been working with AU for over a decade and have not seen these problems with my clients. They have provided very competitive WC rates for tough class codes (trucking, construction, etc) and payroll services that match up with the other players in the industry. I have presented a hundred or more quotes over the years and the costs are broken out clearly.
One thing I will say is that these claims of fraud or incorrectly filing taxes can’t be accurate… AU is owned by Berkshire Hathaway (aka Warren Buffett) so their books are scrubbed like any major publicly traded company is. I am very careful about the WC/​payroll companies I work with because there have been a ton of fly by night payroll and PEO’s (employee leasing companies). The two that I have worked with for years and trust to service my best clients are Applied Underwriters and BBSI. Applied is a payroll plus WC company and BBSI is a true employee leasing company. Some of the other posters seem to be confused about that so I am not sure if they are mixed up as to which company they are really working with.
I rated them a 4* because no insurance company is perfect, there are always issues when you are dealing with the difficult class codes that AU is willing to take on. My only service issues with AU have primarily been due to employers trying to game the system (paying employees under the table, etc).

This is the most UNPROFESSIONAL company I have ever had to deal with! I give them 1 star just so I can post this otherwise, they get ZERO STARS!!! The company I work for was swindled into this deal almost 3 years ago and I can’t wait until we finish our contract with them!
The insurance company we currently have for our auto and worker’s comp swindled us into this company with a former employee. THREE YEARS of this BS with them is about to come to an end in June! What they do is take over your payroll and put you in a pool for worker’s comp to make you think you are getting the best rate. Well, that rate is unknown because NO ONE can even tell you how much it is costing you for ANYTHING not even for their sorry payroll service. I can’t believe they are in business! There has to be a commission to report them to.
Not to mention all of the complaints we have had to make and dealing with multiple people who know nothing, can’t tell you anything but want you to sign documents to cover their behinds. The latest and greatest is they took state taxes from one of our employees who lives in a state that doesn’t have payroll state taxes. How did they calculate how much state tax to take from him? Well, here’s the punchline, they used his Federal W4 Form to calculate state takes for the state the employer resides in which isn’t the state in which the employee resides. Now, he’s not the only employee we have that lives in a state that has no payroll state taxes so WHY did they take it upon themselves to do that? And here’s the best part! They want us to sign a worker’s comp form of «no known losses» to add the state the employee lives in (shouldn’t they have done that when they added him to payroll?) and then they can file to get him reimbursed for the state taxes they took out! So why should we sign something to help them? They need to reimburse him on their own!
If you have an agent or broker you are working with, DO NOT let them swindle you into using Applied Underwriters (aka SolutionsOne) as your worker’s comp company. IT IS A SCAM!

I give –5 STARS!!!
THE WORST COMPANY EVER! AVOID THEM AVOID THEM! I have been with AU for 2 years now and it has been a total nightmare!!! i tried to get my EDD balance as well as how much they are charging me for payroll service i called and after rude and almost imposible customer service, long holds, and transfers between one another, NOTHING!!! THEY SAID THAT THEY COULDNT GIVE ME ANY INFORMATION!!! i asked them why? and said that that information is mine by right, i should know whats going on with my account and were my money is going because they are very EXPENSIVE, they said and i quote «yeah… so… no i cant give you any infomation…» i was beyond enraged, I told them that i was not happy with their service and they said nothing not even a sorry!!! i couldnt belive the shadiness of these people, i hope i can get away from this company soon and go to a better one, i hope nobody has to deal with them ever…

The company I work for was a client of this company for one year 1÷3÷2011 to 1÷1÷2012. This company is nothing but a money stealing machine. They were supposed to file the companies payroll liability taxes, and they did everything wrong. I had the IRS looking for money that I assumed that Applied was paying out. When I questioned them I was told the IRS was wrong. I get that the IRS is not perfect however, when they are breathing down my neck for money that was supposed to paid on the companies account and that the company has paid out, guess what? The IRS is not wrong. And I had to do all the work to prove Applied filed in a way that was unacceptable, and they also took no accountability.
Their communication skills lack in every aspect, try calling, you will deal with one person that they have given the GOD ability to. What I mean is, that one person knows everything and not matter what they say are right and end on be all stops with this one person. Don’t try to ask for a manager, they don’t exist, and if they do, they must be so important that they have no time to speak with a customer. No calls are ever returned and try to get documentation relevant to what you are asking about… not going to happen.
It has been two years since the company I work for has been a customer of Applied, and yesterday they decided to take $ 86 from an operating checking account and I was dumb founded. I called this company and they told me that they could do an unauthorized debit because I was a part of a pool. Funny, I was never told or agreed to be a part of a pool when the company was a client. Hmm so misrepresentation on top of everything else. If I wanted to be in a WC pool I would have paid the maximum price and stayed in the MA pool…
This company is a joke. I will be filing formal complaints about this company within the state of MA. They need to be stopped, my money is my money, not theirs for the taking when they please.

1) They do not save money 2) They consider the fax machine essential for communication 3) Sometimes the payroll does not get done or is done improperly 4) Their workforce is unmotivated.
Luckily I haven’t had a claim against their workers’ compensation insurance as I do not think that would go smoothly.
You can’t go wrong picking another company.

absolute nightmare to do business with. won’t put anything in writing as company policy.

My experience with Applied Underwriters was awful. They hook new clients with competitve quotes for Workers’ Comp insurance. What they do not tell you is that your employees cease to be your employees and as a result certain payroll taxes are charged for a second time. When it came to resolving the issue, their customer service accepted no responsibility. Eventually, we had to go to arbitration in order to force them to return payroll taxes that were not payable.
One of the worst business experiences I have ever had. I would not recommend Applied Underwriters to anyone.

Literally the WORST payroll company I have ever dealt with. Constant mistakes, rude employees, and they are THE slowest people on the planet. Getting anything from them is like pulling teeth. And they are expensive! Avoid them. Go with paychex.