State Farm General said it will pay $7.6 billion to settle claims from last month’s firestorms in the Los Angeles area.
The insurance provider is meeting with state insurance regulators Wednesday, Feb. 26, to push for a rate increase in homeowners insurance premiums.
In a letter sent in advance of the meeting to Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Tuesday, Feb. 25, State Farm President and CEO Dan Krause wrote that reinsurance — a type of insurance on insurance in catastrophic events — would cover a majority of the losses. Reinsurance, State Farm said, would lower its losses to about $612 million.
This includes $212 million in retained losses after reinsurance, and State Farm’s special assessment of $400 million that it must pay into the California Fair Plan, an insurer of last resort.
State Farm General requested a 22% emergency rate hike in California on Monday, Feb. 3 to cover losses from the Los Angeles County wildfires and stop its “financial deterioration.” Lara shot down the request, and asked that Krause and other company officials meet with him Wednesday.
The Bloomington, Ill.-based property insurer, the largest in California and a subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., said it has received more than 9,500 claims from the Jan. 7-8 fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena areas. The company said it has paid more than $1.75 billion to customers.
Also, this week, S&P Global placed State Farm General’s AA financial rating on a negative watch, citing the company’s “weakening capital position” as a result of the California wildfires.