Insurance companies in Los Angeles: 7,181 offices, the insurers based in LA and Orange County, and how to check them

This page is for Angelenos and Orange County residents choosing an insurer or stuck on a claim, for people looking for insurance jobs in Southern California, and for companies that sell to carriers and agencies. It shows the shape of the market from Census data, names the insurers headquartered here from their filings and state records, and explains California's tools for checking a license and a complaint record. It doesn't recommend carriers.

The market, from County Business Patterns

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro (CBSA 31080) is two counties. In 2023:

Orange County punches above its size: 35% of establishments but 45% of employees, and more than three-quarters as many carrier jobs as Los Angeles County. By segment, across the metro (average pay is our calculation from payroll and employees):

The title insurers' employee count is published but flagged: the noise the Census Bureau adds to protect confidentiality changed it by 5% or more. Carriers are only 12.8% of establishments but 45.5% of insurance jobs.

That is 6,582 establishments under 20 employees, 470 with 20 to 99 and 129 with 100 or more, an average of 11.5. These are establishments with paid employees, so solo agents without staff aren't counted and a carrier with offices in Woodland Hills and Irvine counts twice.

Insurers headquartered in Los Angeles and Orange County

Four SEC-listed insurers give addresses in the metro on their 2025 10-K covers:

Mercury's 10-K shows how local it is: $4.91 billion of its 2025 direct premiums, 82.1%, were written in California, and of its roughly 8,510 independent agents, about 2,670 are in the state. Independent agents and agencies produced about 88% of its direct premiums, not counting its own agencies.

Unlisted insurers are run from here too. Tennessee's list of licensed insurers (as of 30 September 2026), which records each company's state of charter and main office, shows California-chartered companies managed from the metro including Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange, Truck Insurance Exchange, Mid-Century Insurance Company and Zenith Insurance Company (Woodland Hills), Republic Indemnity Company of America (Calabasas), Pacific Specialty Insurance Company (Anaheim), Tesla Insurance Company (Irvine) and American Contractors Indemnity Company (Los Angeles). That list includes only insurers licensed in Tennessee. For national rankings of the groups behind these names, see the largest insurance companies in the US and the largest health insurance companies.

Checking a California insurer or agent

1. License. The California Department of Insurance (CDI) Check License Status tool covers agents, brokers and companies. Its license line is 800-967-9331.
2. Justified complaints. CDI's Consumer Complaint Study ranks companies for auto, homeowners and life by justified complaints per 100,000 policies or exposures, for three years, counting complaints closed in each year. Lower is better. CDI's own example: a ratio of 0.9 means 0.9 justified complaints closed for every 100,000 earned exposures. Companies with very few policies can swing from year to year, so read all three years.
3. National record. The NAIC's Consumer Insurance Search adds complaint, license and financial information across states.
4. Help with a problem. Call the CDI Consumer Hotline on 1-800-927-4357 or file online through its consumer complaint portal. CDI recommends the electronic forms because paper can slow the process.

Health plan complaints may go elsewhere: CDI's complaint study doesn't rank health insurers and points to separate report cards.

Insurance jobs in LA

Life insurers paid an average of $237,742 in 2023, carriers overall $131,693 and agencies $99,260, all above the national averages of $107,137 for carriers and $90,831 for agencies (our calculation). The 129 establishments with 100 or more employees are where corporate roles are; Orange County has a disproportionate share of the carrier jobs.

Selling to LA's agencies and carriers

Most of the market by count is the 5,786 agencies, which buy agency management systems, comparative raters, CRM and marketing, often multilingual. The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of California publishes a find-an-agent tool and a carrier and vendor member directory, a quick map of who already sells to agencies. Carriers here lean to health, title and personal lines, and buy claims, policy and member systems, data and contract talent through IT, operations and procurement.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are invented.

Harbor Intake (harbor-intake.example) sells software that reads commercial insurance applications and loss runs and fills in carrier submissions. It targets metro agencies and brokerages with 20 to 99 employees: 148 plus 59, or 207. It keeps the ones with commercial lines departments, an assumed half, or about 104. A short email and a call to each commercial lines manager, at an 8% reply rate, gives 8 conversations; two customers at $15,000 a year add $30,000. Telling commercial shops from personal lines shops across 207 offices is research Bebop does for each account.

Next step: see the wider business market in companies in Los Angeles.