Is Your Home Insurance at Risk? State Farm Will Stop Renewing Policies in a Key U.S. State

The American insurance company, State Farm, has announced developments that affect a large portion of its insured following an analysis of the company’s financial health that necessitates drastic measures to ensure its existence.

While factors such as inflation, reinsurance costs, exposure to catastrophes, and constraints within decades-old insurance regulations have eroded the company’s financial development, a decision is now required to guarantee long-term sustainability in California.

State Farm is the largest provider of home and auto insurance in the United States, and its significant number of employees manage more than 91 million policies and accounts, including auto, health, fire, life, commercial policies, financial services accounts, etc.

Consequently, this situation has led to outcomes that will definitely not be beneficial for some, as it involves a large percentage of clients of State Farm General Insurance Company, which serves as a home insurance provider in California.

The measures taken include the requirements and restrictions defined below:

• Non-renewal of approximately 30,000 homeowner’s insurance policies, as well as rental home insurance and other property insurances that include residential community associations and business owners. (It should be noted that a rental home policy insures the homeowners of rental properties, so renter’s insurance is not affected).
• Withdrawal of offering policies for commercial apartments starting with the non-renewal of about 42,000 policies. (It is also important to note that a policy for commercial apartments insures apartment owners, so – as in the previous case – renter’s insurance is not affected).

These measures are specifically applied in the state of California and will have a continuous implementation. According to official site information, policy management will behave in the following manner:

Starting next Wednesday, July 3 of the current year, it applies to policies of:

• Homeowners.
• Rental homeowners.
• Residential community associations.
• Business owners.

Starting next Tuesday, August 20 of the current year, it is implemented for policies of:

• Commercial apartments.

According to details disclosed by specialist Sevag Sarkissian, these combined policies represent just over 2 percent of the policy count of State Farm General in California.

The site also clarifies that the decision was based on a thorough and highly detailed analysis given the impacts on the company by external elements that have declined financial patterns.

“State Farm General takes seriously our responsibility to maintain an adequate claims payment capacity for our customers and to comply with applicable financial solvency laws, so it is necessary to take these measures now.”

Moreover, Sarkissian has reported that affected customers will be notified prior to the expiration of their policy to provide details about other coverage options.

Meanwhile, State Farm General Insurance Company acknowledges the regulatory reforms proposed by the Insurance Commissioner, which include streamlining the rate application process, as well as accounting for catastrophe models and reinsurance costs in rates, in addition to the vulnerabilities of the FAIR plan.

The official note assures that the company will evaluate the need to carry out additional business actions as market conditions and policies vary.