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GEICO Closes All 38 Offices In California
Hundreds of employees laid off, policies to be still given through online means
By Evan Symon, August 2, 2022 2:30 am
GEICO, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States, reportedly closed all 38 of it’s California offices on Monday, resulting in hundreds of workers being laid off.
According to the company, GEICO would not be leaving outright, and will still be offering policies directly online, with all insurance functions continuing as normal. Buying directly through agents by phone, however, will not be possible.
“We continue to write policies in California, and we remain available through our direct channels for the more than 2.18 million California customers presently insured with us,” said GEICO in a statement on Monday.
As of Monday, GEICO has not released the reasons why the offices closed or if the offices in any other states will close in the near future.
The California Department of Insurance is currently overlooking the situation to make sure that GEICO still gives adequate access to Californians and that the office closures won’t disrupt the over two million policies in the state.
“We are monitoring to make sure consumers are protected,” said CDI in a statement on Monday. “California has a strong insurance market with more than 130 companies competing for consumers’ private passenger auto business and more than 70 companies writing homeowners insurance. We encourage consumers to look at their options for coverage in California’s competitive marketplace.”
While the Berkshire Hathaway-owned company has said that a complete pullout will not happen, many of those in the industry said that the removal of offices and agents could lead to some worrying trends.
“When you get rid of the offices like this, it doesn’t exactly bode well for many people,” explained Trevor Connery, a lobbyist who has worked for insurance companies in the past, to the Globe on Monday. “If there is an accident you can still call and everything from the sound of it to get through that, but for people needing someone to help them buy insurance it can be an issue. Some people don’t have internet access or need someone to help guide them through the process. Some insurance language is confusing, and having an agent explain in layman’s terms or offer a competitive quote to make a sale could hurt GEICO.
“But hey, the company probably crunched all the numbers on this. As for them leaving, it could be a declining market, the recession, higher costs in California, or a number of other issues. Honestly, the industry is getting more out of the office more and more anyway, so it may just be the beginning of a trend too. We need to hear the whys first before we can really see, and right now all we have is speculation.
“California is lucky to have the CDI to monitor what’s going on though. Considering the size of a company and the fact that they have millions of customers in California, many of whom are transplants bringing GEICO out here, they won’t leave the state. Just getting it will be more online oriented now.”
The exact reasons for leaving the state are expected to be known soon.
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GEICO is owned by the evil globalist Warren Buffet and his Berkshire Hathaway company? No doubt GEICO senior management want to eliminate independent insurance agents and have online sales only? Trevor Connery, a lobbyist who has worked for insurance companies in the past, said that California is lucky to have the California Department of Insurance (CDI) to monitor what’s going on? Many of us think that the CDI is another useless government bureaucracy that mostly caters to the insurance industry?
Well now Mario…there’s your problem. If you don’t like Berkshire Hathaway, don’t do business with them. Calling their Chairman names only makes you look foolish, and jealous.
California is not a welcoming state for businesses. That’s why they bussinesses are leaving. Californians asked for this by electing the leaders they elected.
The reason I’ve heard is that California is disallowing the existence of independent insurance agents, they all now have to be employees, no more independent contractor status. So just like they’re doing to independent truckers, Commifornia is doing it to insurance agents.
I find this very strange and why so sudden????
They are leaving because of California’s ridiculous costs. There is an exodus of major businesses thanks to our moron governor
GEICO made a smart business move to streamline their California business model by offering their insurance products online. Doing business in California is expensive and when you add in the illegal draconian COVID-19 lockdowns , illegal mask mandate and illegal experimental vaccine mandates it just makes economic sense to closed offices and go online.
Geico Life Insurance needs the money to pay for the abnormal amount of deaths as the result of the “shot”. Money has to come from somewhere,
I was working in one of the offices that got closed down. I received a call from my boss letting me know that Geico was going to shut down their offices in California and that they would let me know when my last day was within the next 30 days. The next day I received a call in the morning letting me know that they have officially closed their offices. They didn’t even give me a 24 hour notice. As far as the reasoning behind I’m leaving we still don’t know. It was really sad seeing my coworkers. These are humans that have households that they need to maintain and families that they need to support. Definitely did not give us enough time to set up for our next move.