The National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) hasreleased its annual list of top consumer complaints, and as inrecent years, the top three issues reported by consumers weredominated by claim-related issues.

According to the NAIC, the top three reasons consumers filedformal complaints against their insurance companies in 2008 weredelays, denials of claims, and unsatisfactory settlement offersmade by an insurer. These are the same issues that have dominatedNAIC's study since 2006. There also is consistency in regards tothe lines of insurance that garner the most consumer complaints.Accident and health ranks first, followed by auto, homeowners',life and annuity, and lastly commercial multi-peril.

A total of 195,669 confirmed consumer complaints on insurancecompanies were reported to the Complaint Database System (CDS) inthe 2008 calendar year. The NAIC said that this information isbased on the submission of data to them from the state insurancedepartments. The CDS is continually updated as new information isreceived from the states on an ongoing basis. The NAIC does notcollect all complaint data from all states.