GEICO closes California insurance offices, lays off hundreds. State and ‘check’ the situation [The Sacramento Bee]

GEICO has closed all 38 of its California offices that sell auto and homeowner policies and other lines and has also ended the practice of selling insurance through telephone agents in the state.

Three offices inside Sacramentoyou in Rosevillethree in Fresno and one Modesto was among the offices that have been closed in the past few days. The closure will result in more than 35 layoffs Sacramento area and hundreds throughout the province.

GEICO office in Roseville they just opened inside July 2021. GEICO released a press release at the time that it would meet the insurance needs of all Placer County residents.

The California Department of Insurance It follows GEICO’s actions, he said California Deputy Commissioner of Insurance Michael Soler.

“We are monitoring to ensure that consumers are protected,” he said in a statement.

A GEICO spokeswoman would not comment on the new changes but said the company is not going away California.

“We are continuing to write a plan Californiaand we are still available through our more than 2.18 million direct channels California currently insured customers,” the company said in an unsigned emailed statement The Sacramento Bee.

These changes leave online options via desktop or mobile as the only way to access GEICO points California

GEICO is one of the largest property and casualty insurers California But Soller said consumers have options. He said more than 130 companies compete in the private auto business and more than 70 companies write homeowner’s insurance.

GEICO’s actions in California come as a company commissioned by Walk-In agents and phone sales remain open in some western countries. GEICO is also advertising on its website for a new salesperson at the office at Naples, Florida.

It is unclear whether GEICO is losing money California and transportation is part of the business process.

“The company’s actions will make it difficult for consumers to buy GEICO policies, especially those who have computer problems or prefer to meet with a personal agent”, said the former Commissioner of Insurance in California. Dave Jones in conversation.

Jones, who served as Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2019, said that’s why GEICO has local offices and consumers who want to meet with an individual insurance provider.

Or GEICO put it this way on their website about local agents: “Their main job is to hopefully create insurance policies and policies that GEICO wouldn’t take away.”

On Thursday, several GEICO customers who tried to meet with local agents at the GEICO office at 5211 Madison Ave. in Sacramento was converted.

He was told to call the 800 number.

“We’re closed forever and we can’t write new plans,” said an agent on Thursday to a reporter.

The doors of the office were closed and several signs were placed on the windows of the agency, stating that it was temporarily closed today. These signs have been hanging on the window since last week when the trading of the policy was suspended.

The agent, who held the door open for less than a minute, said the closure was permanent and the result of corporate decisions by GEICO, not the local agency, which is independent.

GEICO hires local workers, according to its website, who must be in the middle $100,000 and $250,000 to open an office. Affiliates make their money from commissions and can only sell GEICO products.

The insurer stopped selling new phones California a few months ago.

GEICO is part of Berkshire Hathawaya publicly traded company controlled by a prominent investor Warren Buffett.

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