State Farm Insurance headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois.
A State Farm executive was fired after being caught on video making disparaging comments about homeowners impacted by the LA wildfires and ‘inaccurate’ assertions about the company’s hiring practices.
The executive is Haden Kirkpatrick, State Farm Mutual’s vice president for innovation and venture capital, according to the Los Angeles Times. In the video recorded during a Tinder date in late January that he now believes was a setup, Kirkpatrick is heard saying homes should not have been built in the Pacific Palisades but people wanted “natural areas around them for their ego.”
“It’s a f— desert,” he said.
Also in the video, Kirkpatrick described State Farm’s hiring practices as mapping a demographic profile of America in 2040.
“You need to find me the workforce of the future,” Kirkpatrick said he told his HR team in the video. “I want the 2040 workforce. More Hispanic and Latino. That means some of us are going to be bias— away from my own kind."
“These assertions are inaccurate and in no way represent the views of State Farm," the company said in a statement. "They do not reflect our position regarding the victims of this tragedy, the commitment we have demonstrated to the people of California, or our hiring practices across the company. The individual in the video is no longer affiliated with State Farm."
In February, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara rejected State Farm’s emergency request for a 22% rate hike after the LA County wildfires, saying the company has not shown why the increase is needed.
In a letter to State Farm dated Feb. 14, Lara said, “State Farm has not met its burden,” and requested the carrier answer critical questions about its financial condition and proposed rate hikes.
Also in February, State Farm confirmed a $7.6 billion price tag for the LA wildfires and that it has already paid out $1.75 billion on roughly 9,500 claims. The company said reinsurance would lower its overall losses to about $612 million.
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