Letters to the Editor: Instead of spending money on ads, State Farm should be helping its customers more

To the editor: I am glad Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is investigating State Farm (“Angry homeowners and a state probe. What went wrong with State Farm’s L.A. fire response,” July 7). We lost our home to the wildfires and have listened to many Zoom calls where we heard horrific stories from fire victims being mistreated by their insurers.

Two suggestions: I think someone needs to look at the ad dollars State Farm spends. It seems like that money would be better spent helping victims and not passing on 17% price increases to its customers.

Secondly, I wish that all the insurance companies would not require us to inventory every piece of lost property. This is a ridiculous and arduous demand and nearly impossible. If these companies insured us for our contents, then they obviously knew as much as they needed to about what we owned and gladly took our insurance premiums over the years.

Jill Smith, Pacific Palisades