By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-12 04:56:42 | Updated at 2025-03-12 11:42:13
6 hours ago
A top State Farm executive has been fired after being caught on hidden camera making stunning and callous remarks about LA wildfire victims while revealing explosive claims about secret corporate maneuvers to raise rates on vulnerable policyholders.
Haden Kirkpatrick, State Farm's Vice President for Innovation and Venture Capital, was secretly recorded admitting the company 'kind of' orchestrated a massive rate hike for California homeowners reeling from the devastation of January's deadly fires.
The undercover video - published by O'Keefe Media Group - sees Kirkpatrick making cynical and cold-hearted statements about victims of the recent infernos that killed 29 people, destroyed over 12,000 homes, and scorched 57,000 acres in Los Angeles County alone.
In the bombshell footage, Kirkpatrick dismissed the suffering of victims and criticized Californians for building homes in fire-prone regions.
'People want to build in areas where they want to have, like, natural areas around them for their ego. But it's also a f***ing desert. And so, it dries out as a tinderbox.
'Areas like where the Palisades are, there should never be houses built in the first place,' Kirkpatrick added without an ounce of sympathy for the thousands who lost everything.
But the footage went further still as Kirkpatrick admitted that wildfires such as those which tore through Pacific Palisades and Altadena, are entirely predictable to insiders and that State Farm is actively maneuvering to escape financial exposure to such disasters.
'Climate change is pushing these seasons. If you're an insurance professional, it's predictable,' he said.
Haden Kirkpatrick, State Farm's Vice President for Innovation and Venture Capital, was secretly recorded admitting the company 'kind of' orchestrated a massive rate hike for California homeowners reeling from the devastation of January's deadly fires
In the bombshell footage, Kirkpatrick dismissed the suffering of victims and criticized Californians for building homes in fire-prone regions
In the most stunning portion of the secret recording, Kirkpatrick described how State Farm manipulated its request for a 22% emergency rate hike to offset $7.9bn in wildfire losses
In the most stunning portion of the secret recording, Kirkpatrick described how State Farm manipulated its request for a 22 percent emergency rate hike in California to offset $7.9 billion in wildfire losses, then made veiled threats about pulling out of California's insurance market entirely if regulators didn't comply.
'Our people look at this and say, "s***, we've got, like, maybe $5 billion that we're short if something happens,"' Kirkpatrick confessed laying out a strategy.
'We'll go to the Department of Insurance and say, "We're overexposed here, you have to let us catch up our rate." And if regulators don’t give us what we want we'll say, "Okay, then we are going to cancel these policies."'
Kirkpatrick was also caught openly admitting to explicit hiring biases, disclosing a strategic effort to reshape the company's workforce along demographic lines all while making shocking racial comments.
'I want the 2040 workforce. So, go find me the demographic profile of America in 2040: more Hispanic and Latinos,' Kirkpatrick said, tasking his HR team to prioritize such racial and ethnic groups.
When asked whether he would apply such preferences to his personal life, Kirkpatrick doubled down.
'I'm being biased... away from my own kind [whites],' he said.
The fallout was swift. State Farm confirmed that Kirkpatrick has been fired, and in an official statement denounced his comments from the March 6 video as 'false'.
Kirkpatrick dismissed the suffering of victims and criticized Californians for building homes in fire-prone regions. 'People want to build in areas where they want to have, like, natural areas around them for their ego. But it's also a f***ing desert. And so, it dries out as a tinderbox
A view of flames at the mountain as seen from Topanga Canyon near Pacific Palisades in Topanga, Los Angeles, on January 9
A burned vehicle remains near the rubble of beachfront homes destroyed in the Palisades Fire in Malibu, California
'These assertions are inaccurate and in no way represent the views of State Farm,' said company spokesman Sevag Sarkissian.
'They do not reflect our position regarding the victims of this tragedy, the commitment we have demonstrated to the people of California, or our hiring practices across the company.'
The California Department of Insurance which has been reviewing State Farm's rate hike request has so far remained silent on the revelations.
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has previously signaled resistance to State Farm's rate demands, noting in a February 14 letter that more information was needed before approving any increase that could further squeeze fire-stricken homeowners.
But if Kirkpatrick's statements do reflect the thinking inside State Farm, regulators and consumers could face a future where California's largest insurer of homes pulls back or exits altogether.
State Farm had been California's largest provider of homeowners' insurance covering over a million homes until it began pulling out of new policy underwriting in 2023, citing wildfire risk.
DailyMail.com has reached out to State Farm for comment.
