Running for Insurance Commissioner, Merritt Farren Knows the Game

Merritt Farren is running for California State Insurance Commissioner.

In the last election, most Los Angeles folks were more concerned about voting for mayor than California Insurance Commissioner.

After the 2025 Palisades Fire, Palisadians know that ignoring that race was a mistake. Some residents had no insurance, many had the Fair Plan, and others differing insurance companies. Some companies paid promptly, others, more than a year later still have not paid. Help was not available from the state or from State Commissioner Ricardo Lara.

Merritt Farren, who lost his home on Holyoke in the Palisades Fire, is running for Insurance Commissioner to change that.

He has already fought for consumers after the Fire, because he wanted his sons to see that “out of the tragedy, positive change can and will come.”

After State Farm was granted an emergency rate hike in May 2025, Farren went to court, opposed by both State Farm and the California Department of Insurance. The judge granted him interventor status, which would allow him to seek discovery about the claims-handling practices of State Farm, California’s largest property insurer.

His 28-page petition criticized State Farm’s claims practices, pointing to lowball reconstruction estimates, excessive documentation demands, and what he called an opaque and inconsistent process that left many fire victims unable to rebuild.

Farren is believed to be the first wildfire survivor to intervene at this level in a rate-setting case and to play such a significant role in shaping how insurance hikes will be evaluated.

He was asked about that case last week by CTN, and said, that because he is now running for State Insurance Commissioner, he’s had to step out  click here.

Farren took time to outline the steps needed to “clean” up insurance in California and how to bring insurance companies back, so people are not stuck on the Fair Plan.

A former senior legal executive for Disney and then Amazon, Farren said to oversee the Insurance Commission and its 1,300 employees, one should have a strong administrative background and be able to handle high stakes litigation. “This is not just about having a law degree,” he said.

Farren is adamant that the State needs to get rid of the Fair Plan. “It’s not good for consumers and not good for insurers,” he said and explained that the bigger insurance companies writing policies in the state have to make up the short fall for the Fair Plan, which sends more insurance companies out of the state, which means fewer companies writing insurance, which forces more people onto the plan.

“We need insurance companies to come in, not be spooked,” he said and added that if California created a model such as the one in Florida or England, even small insurance companies could return, which is better for consumers.

Farren said that the insurance commissioner should also work to simplify the policies and risks being written. Everyone should know their coverage and receive a check for it. “Speed really, really counts,” he said and added “It shouldn’t be complicated.”

He argues that simplification is needed in policies and that if insurance wants to dispute the language, it should be up front and not argued after a home is gone.

“There are bad actors that wind their way around rules, they manipulate them,” Farren said. “Language [in the policy] is required by the State of California and it should be readable to a normal person.”

When Farren worked at Disneyland, he dealt with insurance claims. “It was my decision to settle or try the case,” he said.  “We were able to do it by working with insurance companies.”

With the California Department of Insurance, “A lot could be done, and a lot should be done,” Farren said. “Efficiency means lower prices for consumers,”

One can also watch Farren on the podcast Three Homeless Guys click here.