State Farm has not been a good neighbor.
The insurance giant is in hot water with the Trump administration, and now the State of California, for itspoor performance in compensating victimsof the Eaton and Palisades Fires.
Residents paid their premiums dutifully for years. Butwhen disaster struck, they were on their own.
State Farm notoriously dropped thousands of households from their policies, forcing them onto the California FAIR plan (which some took to calling the “un-FAIR plan”).
But those lucky enough to have insurance as of January 7, 2025 — the date of the fires — had to struggle to get State Farm to pay.
The Bloomington, Illinois, insurer made lowball offers to some policyholders, amounting to a small fraction of their losses, perhaps hoping they were desperate enough to accept.
California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.
The company also shuffled and reshuffled adjusters, so that months after working with one State Farm representative, a policyholder often had to start all over again with the next.
Perhaps most painful of all, State Farm required people who had lost their homes to make itemized lists of their possessions before they could obtain full compensation. For many who lost everything, compiling these lists was an almost impossible task, and a bitter one.
State Senator Ben Allen had to intervene, and managed to pushSB 495through the California legislature, requiring State Farm and other insurers to pay at least 60% of personal property losses before requiring a list.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
