COUNTRY Financial homeowners insurance

Overview

COUNTRY Financial is the insurance and financial services group the Illinois Farm Bureau built, headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois. Its homeowners policies are issued by COUNTRY Mutual Insurance Company, COUNTRY Casualty Insurance Company and COUNTRY Preferred Insurance Company and are sold only through the company's own representatives — exclusive agents who also sell COUNTRY auto, life, farm, business and investment products. The company says it serves more than one million households in 19 states.

COUNTRY ranked #26 among U.S. homeowners insurance groups by 2025 direct premiums written, according to NAIC market share data, with $1.23 billion in homeowners premiums, or 0.65% of the national market. That business is concentrated at home: COUNTRY was the third-largest home insurer in Illinois in 2025, with $540.5 million and 7.79% of the market, behind only State Farm and Allstate. It also ranked in the top 10 in Alaska (5th, 8.62%), Oregon (8th), Nevada (9th) and North Dakota (10th).

The company is known for a customer base that started on the farm and now reaches well beyond it, A-range financial strength ratings going back decades, and a discount menu built around loyalty and payment habits. Since 2024 it has also been known for an unusual public fight with the American Farm Bureau Federation, set off when COUNTRY stopped requiring nonfarm Illinois customers to join the Farm Bureau.

History

The Illinois Agricultural Association — the Illinois Farm Bureau — chartered the company's predecessor in 1925 as a reinsurer for county Farm Bureaus, and that year COUNTRY Mutual Insurance Company began selling fire and lightning coverage to Illinois farmers. Crop-hail and farm equipment insurance followed in 1926, auto insurance in 1927 and COUNTRY Life Insurance Company in 1929. COUNTRY Preferred Insurance Company was incorporated in 1953, and the home office moved from downtown Chicago to Bloomington in 1961.

Growth beyond Illinois came mostly through acquisitions and affiliations. Buying Mid-America Fire and Marine in 1964 added Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mutual Service Insurance joined in 2001. Atlanta-based Cotton States Mutual began pooling its property-casualty results with the COUNTRY group effective January 1, 2005. An alliance with Middlesex Mutual Assurance of Connecticut (1998) grew into the MiddleOak brand in 2006, but COUNTRY later left that business: in 2021 MiddleOak's assets and renewal rights, along with Dauntless Specialty Brokerage, went to The McGowan Companies. The group traded under The Country Companies and COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services before settling on COUNTRY Financial in a 2008 rebrand.

COUNTRY celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025. Jim Jacobs, chief executive since early 2019, retired on June 30, 2026, and the board opened a search for a successor; local press reported in late September 2026 that no new CEO had been named.

Homeowners coverage

COUNTRY writes homeowners, condo, renters and landlord policies, plus farm coverage for agricultural operations. The homeowners policy is assembled from two choices that many carriers fold into a single form.

The first is the peril basis. Standard coverage is named-perils (broad form): fire, lightning, wind and hail, freezing pipes, theft, vandalism and the other causes of loss listed in the policy. Premier is open-perils ("risk of direct physical loss") coverage that pays unless a cause is excluded. You choose separately for the dwelling and for personal property, so a policy can be Premier on the house and Standard on contents. The company's own example: a power surge that ruins a home theater is not covered under Standard personal property coverage but is under Premier.

The second is loss settlement: actual cash value or replacement cost. Above replacement cost, COUNTRY offers extended replacement cost (the company cites up to 120%) and guaranteed replacement cost, which it also calls Additional Replacement Cost and describes as having no cap. Ask the representative whether the uncapped option is available in your state and what it requires of you, such as insuring the home to its full estimated rebuilding cost and reporting major renovations.

Optional coverages listed on the company's site include scheduled personal property, sump pump failure and sewer or drain backup, earthquake, service line (reinsured through Hartford Steam Boiler) and identity theft. Flood insurance and umbrella liability are separate policies. COUNTRY notes that options and limits vary by state. In hail country, read the declarations page for any separate wind/hail deductible and for how roof losses are settled before storm season, not after a claim.

Discounts and savings

COUNTRY's published homeowners discounts fall into four groups:

• Bundling: a Multi-Policy Discount for pairing home coverage with COUNTRY auto, life, disability income or commercial insurance, or with a COUNTRY Trust Bank account or annuity holding more than $1,000.
• Rewards: a Welcome Discount on new policies, a Loyalty Discount that replaces it once you have been a client for generally three years or more, plus Good Payer, Claim Free (five consecutive claim-free years) and Preferred Payment (paying the premium annually).
• Devices: Protective Devices (central-station burglar or fire alarm, or automatic sprinklers), Smart Home (connected thermostats, leak detectors, smart smoke detectors and similar), and a Back-up System Discount for homes with the sump pump/sewer backup endorsement plus a battery or water-pressure backup pump or a permanent generator.
• Home features: Age of Home (renovated older homes can qualify; not offered in Minnesota), Age of Wiring (Minnesota), Hail-Resistive Roof and Safe Heat (no wood stove or other solid-fuel heater).

Two practical notes. Because the Welcome Discount gives way to the Loyalty Discount, compare renewal notices around year three. And the hail-resistive roof credit requires documentation, so keep the roofer's invoice and the product's impact rating on file; see Impact-resistant (Class 4) roofs and hail discounts.

Where it sells and recent market moves

COUNTRY sells homeowners insurance in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin. It does not write in Florida, California, Texas or Louisiana, so its main property risks are Midwestern hail and wind and, in the West, wildfire. The company has not announced homeowners exits or new-business pauses in any of its states through October 2026.

The most consequential recent change is about membership, not coverage. Until 2024, every COUNTRY property-casualty policyholder in Illinois had to join the Illinois Farm Bureau and pay dues on top of the premium. In fall 2024 COUNTRY dropped that requirement for nonfarm customers. The American Farm Bureau Federation responded by voting to expel the Illinois Farm Bureau, then deferred the expulsion pending litigation. The dispute spilled into governance: in December 2025 Farm Bureau members elected Philip Nelson president over Brian Duncan, and Duncan and four other defeated directors at first declined to give up their seats on the COUNTRY Mutual board. In September 2026, Country Mutual Insurance Company sued the federation in Illinois state court, alleging conspiracy, breach of a 1990 agreement and deceptive trade practices; the federation called the claims "categorically false." Nothing reported so far changes policy terms for customers.

Illinois itself has no prior-approval law for homeowners rates. After large 2025 rate increases by other carriers, a push for rate review failed in the fall 2025 veto session, and COUNTRY's chief financial officer told WGLT the company plans to stay in the state.

Claims

Report a homeowners claim through your online account, the COUNTRY Financial mobile app, by calling 866-268-6879 (866-COUNTRY) or through your local representative. An adjuster is assigned, reviews coverage and the deductible with you, and may inspect in person; contractors can deal with the adjuster directly. Policyholders can upload documents, email the adjuster and take payment by electronic funds transfer.

COUNTRY has run a dedicated Storm Team since 2010, and its catastrophe volume is mostly convective weather. Storms on March 14–16, 2025 produced more than 2,500 claims, mostly wind and hail in southern Illinois. By April 20, 2026, a tornado and hail outbreak had produced 844 claims (669 property), 778 of them in Illinois. In August 2026 the company sent adjusters to the Spokane-area wildfires in Washington.

Ratings and reputation

AM Best affirmed the A+ (Superior) financial strength rating of the COUNTRY Financial property-casualty group, with a stable outlook, in August 2026, citing profitable operating earnings, strong risk-adjusted capitalization and geographic and product diversification. The company says the group has been rated A or higher for more than 90 consecutive years. See Financial strength ratings: AM Best, S&P, Moody's and Demotech for what the letter grades mean.

The Farm Bureau litigation is the main reputational question mark: it has produced board turmoil at the mutual and lawsuits on both sides, coinciding with the CEO vacancy in mid-2026. It concerns governance and branding rather than claims practices.

Who it suits

COUNTRY fits homeowners in its 19 states who want a local representative to handle home, auto, life and farm coverage together, and who value policy design choices such as open-perils coverage or uncapped rebuilding protection. It fits less well for people who want an agent to shop several companies, or for anyone outside its footprint. Compare it with State Farm, American Family Insurance and Farm Bureau Financial Services.

• Strengths: A+ (Superior) from AM Best, affirmed August 2026; separate Standard or Premier peril choices for house and contents; extended and guaranteed replacement cost options; a long, specific discount list.
• Weaknesses: sold only through COUNTRY's own representatives, so no side-by-side quotes from other carriers; available in 19 states only; heavy Midwestern hail exposure; leadership and Farm Bureau litigation unresolved as of October 2026.

How to contact COUNTRY Financial