California insurance regulators have launched a formal investigation into State Farm’s handling of claims from the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, following mounting complaints from policyholders about reassignments of adjusters, refusal to test contaminated homes, and low-balled damage estimates. The California Department of Insurance will conduct a market conduct examination to determine if State Farm followed laws and regulations guiding claim handling.
The investigation was announced as State Farm is pursuing another rate increase. Policyholder groups, including the Eaton Fire Survivors, have urged transparency before any further rate hikes are considered. The group collected nearly 400 complaints and sent a letter to the insurance commissioner detailing systemic tactics to discourage policyholders from pursuing claims. Chen’s group of over 600 signatories is pushing for Commissioner Lara to make public the results of the investigation, including compliance with the law.
Source: https://www.kqed.org/science/1997376/la-wildfire-survivors-urge-regulators-to-share-results-of-state-farm-investigation