News: 2009 Press Release

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner today was joined by State Farm's California Senior Vice President Rand Harbert to announce a $219 million rate reduction for State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Company policyholders in California. This represents an average decrease of 8 percent. 

"State Farm policyholders throughout California will be keeping $219 million more of their hard-earned money, thanks to this rate cut," said Commissioner Poizner.  "Since I took office 2007, rates have fallen by nearly $2 billion for California consumers, and it is encouraging that in these tough economic times, the largest auto insurer in the state is passing company savings along to policyholders."

As the largest auto insurer in the state, State Farm has 3.3 million auto insurance policies in California, covering 13 percent of the auto insurance market.  Under the newly approved reduced rates, California policyholders will save an average of about 8 percent, or about $66 per policy per year - a total of $219 million. Rate reductions will go into effect for new or renewed policies after July 6, 2009. 

State Farm customers in Los Angeles County will save a total of $50 million per year under the new rate reduction, with the average L.A. driver saving $75 per year.  State Farm writes 665,000 policies in Los Angeles County.

"Our premiums are based on what we calculate we will need in the future to meet the obligations we have to our policyholders," said State Farm's California Senior Vice President Harbert.  "Because our recent experience and trends are favorable, it allows us to pass along those savings to our customers in the form of lower rates.  We are pleased to be able to help our customers at a time when many people are struggling financially due to the economic challenges we all face."

Since taking office, Commissioner Poizner has approved more than $500 million in auto insurance rate savings for consumers, including a $101 million reduction for AAA of Southern California customers,  $41 million reduction for Mercury policyholders, a $100 million reduction for AAA of Northern California customers, and a $65.8 million reduction for GEICO customers.  Overall, Commissioner Poizner has approved approximately $2 billion in rate reductions for consumers in all lines of insurance including automobile, homeowners, renters and other insurance products.