Guest Commentary written by

Merritt Farren

Merritt Farren, a Republican, is running for Insurance Commissioner. He is an attorney, an advocate and a former executive at Amazon and Disney.

More than a year after the devastating Southern California wildfires, CalMatters asked candidates for the 2026 state Insurance Commissioner race to share thoughts on what the state can do to help victims and stabilize insurers. Read each candidate’s response here.

When my family home burned in the Palisades fire last year, my community suffered a second trauma —  navigating a completely broken insurance system that fails consumers and insurers. 

Premiums are skyrocketing, coverage is disappearing and claims handling too often adds insult to injury rather than assistance.

Determined to turn tragedy into progress — and to show my two sons that the best response to hardship is to create change that protects others — I jumped into the State Farm rate proceedings as a consumer advocate. That experience led me to work nonstop since June 2025 with insurance industry and consumer protection experts to develop solutions to California’s insurance crisis.

California is the global capital of innovation, yet our government has failed to deliver the innovation our insurance system desperately needs. Millions of families, homeowners and businesses can’t get the insurance they need. Those who can get it face unaffordable rates while service deteriorates.

The Insurance Commissioner role is highly demanding. Success requires deep experience in business, technology and law. I bring that exact combination from my career at Amazon and Disney. At those companies, we tackled massive challenges with bold thinking, technology and a relentless focus on the customer. That’s what California’s insurance system needs — not tweaks around the edges or more political posturing, but ground-up reform that works for consumers and insurers.

Here is my plan as Insurance Commissioner:

First, I would lead a technology-centric reinvention of our insurance regulations. I’d overhaul outdated rules from the ground up, not by adding more layers that don’t work. Using modern technology, we can expand insurance options, lower costs and strengthen consumer protections while creating a more predictable, hospitable environment that brings insurers — big and small — back to California.

Second, I would implement CAL Reinsure — a plan I’ve developed to replace the failing FAIR Plan. The FAIR Plan is on life support and has become part of the problem. CAL Reinsure removes catastrophic community fire risk from individual insurers and places it with a dedicated reinsurance authority — modeled on successful programs Florida used for hurricanes, the UK for floods, and the federal government after 9/11 for terrorism risk. 

This will make it attractive and financially viable for insurers to write standard home policies again for all Californians. It also mandates full payouts of insured rebuild amounts within 30 days of a total loss, ending the “delay and deny” trauma, so families can rebuild quickly.

Third, I would provide aggressive leadership on community safety and underlying cost drivers. I’d establish minimum community protection standards for cities and counties, to reduce fire and other risks. 

At the same time, I’d go line by line — homeowners, auto, business, and health insurance — to expose and attack fraud, waste, and other hidden costs that are driving premiums higher and threatening families’ financial security.

The candidate guest commentaries are being published in the order in which they were received.