California insurance commissioner declares 'crisis' after major State Farm announcement

FOXBusiness ^ | March 23, 2024 | Chris Pandolfo

[Robwin]

California's insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara spoke out after the state's largest home insurance provider announced that it would discontinue coverage for tens of thousands of policies this summer.

"This is a real crisis," Commissioner Lara told KABC in an interview Friday.

The commissioner said he wants to investigate State Farm's finances, but warned that regulators can't go too far, or else they would risk pushing companies out of California entirely.

"Insurance companies are not like utility companies," he told KABC. "By law, they don't have to be here, and when we try to overregulate, we'll see what happened after the Northridge earthquake, when the legislature came in and tried to overregulate, and they no longer write earthquake insurance in California."

[micmac]

State Farm along with the other major insurers have requested rate increases and the state says no so they will pack up and leave

[Yogafist]

Was that the Jon Phillips show? I no longer live in CA but still enjoy talk radio it there.

[eyeamok]

The State mandates what the insurance companies can charge then when disaster hits the State mandates what they have to pay out in claims, regardless of the amount of coverage. Workers Comp is probably the worst, at least 90% of all claims are outright FRAUD and Nobody does anything about it.

[Bon of Babble]

John Kobylt show on 640 KFI.

[Bon of Babble]

I am sorry to hear this.

I wish you the best going forward.

[Mean Daddy]

There was an insurance company that engaged a company that had aerial photographs that tied homeowner policies to their customers who had large trees near their property. Home owners were given a set amount of time to either have them cut down or severely trimmed back. Guess they’re getting tired of replacing roofs with tree branches on them.

[Myrddin]

Thanks. Hoping to get all of the "deferred maintenance" completed and resume proper operation soon.

[Responsibility2nd]

I wonder how feasible it would be under California law to establish closed insurance cooperatives to replace traditional property & casualty insurance.

Texas has such a program.

How much does windstorm insurance cost in Texas?

 

 

TWIA windstorm insurance rates

The average cost of windstorm insurance from the TWIA is $1,587 per year, but you may be eligible for lower rates depending on where your house is located, your home's building code compliance and the size of your deductible.

 

This mandatoy coverage (if you have a mortgage on the coast) is in addition to a regular homeowners policy AND flood insurance.