Keith Perret (dressed in State Farm red) and others affected by Hurricane Helene got an interesting status update over breakfast from Georgia’s Insurance Commissioner.
The Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce held its annual legislative breakfast, an opportunity to talk with the members of the local delegation prior to the 2025 Legislative Session.
The man leading the state agency on the front line of helping storm victims receiving fair compensation was guest speaker for the event.
John King told ABD he realized metro Augusta is facing a long road to recovery.
“So, we’re listening very carefully to consumers and watching very carefully the performance of insurance companies to make sure that they’re doing what they promised to do when they sold these policies. We are investigating some complaints, but so far, we’re watching,” he said.
King told his audience he is monitoring the performance of insurance companies as people try to recover.
“If a company is not explaining or responding to you on a timely basis, pick up the phone and send us a message. I’m watching very carefully,” he said. “I had recently a company that announced that if you don’t put in your claim in the next month or so, that they’re not going to pay out. Please do that. I’m waiting to whack them in the head. I had an insurance company not too long ago decided that they were not going to renew your policy if your roof was over 10 years. I gave them 24 hours to change that, because that’s against state law.”
Another man on the front line of helping people recover is Keith Perret, a local State Farm agent.
He said interactions with clients have gone through multiple stages, from clients not knowing what to do then believing the company is trying to rip off customers.
“And really, it’s not that any of those are true. It’s just that people have never been through this type of event,” he explained. “I’m from Louisiana, so I’ve seen this before, but I will tell you that this was 10 times worse than Katrina. I’ve never seen so many trees down, so many trees and houses, and so it’s a catastrophe. And for people like us that work for an agency, we were right in the middle of everybody’s tragedy. So, by the end of October and November, we were just depressed and tired and worn out, but it’s starting to clear up.”
While looking at the immediate need for disaster recovery in the short term, Perret also asked King what agents and customers should expect in the future.
“I think it’s better for him to talk about what’s coming, because rates have been going up in ‘23 and ’24, especially, on the auto side,” he said. “We are expecting them to come back down in ‘25 and we can’t do that without the permission of the commissioner, so I’m curious to see what we have in that respect. I’m also curious to see what he has to say about homeowners’ rates and things of that nature.”
“Any insurance company, they have to get me to approve a rate increase,” King replied. I approve every product they sell, every company that sells insurance in Georgia, they have to come to me. No insurance company gets what they ask for. The first thing I ask is to show me the losses. What is your experience in the state, by region of our state? Just because you took a loss one year, I’m not going to let you get well in one year, because we can’t break the back of the consumer.”
King said any insurance customer with a complaint can file with his office at https://oci.georgia.gov/insurance-resources/complaints-fraud.
Gov. Brian Kemp (R) recently held a series of statewide meetings to learn what impact insurance costs are having in the state, particularly for businesses. Information collected can be used in the upcoming legislative session to pass new legislation, including possible tort reform, or amend existing laws.
