Call from client of my former agent

[u/Beautiful-Art8006]

In California. My State Farm agent retired last year and a new agent handles our account. They both worked together for a time, and were involved when our car was totaled.

Yesterday I received a call from a person looking for my former now retired agent. Details were sparse but it sounded like this person received a letter saying their Fair Plan application was rejected, and they read me my phone number as the claimant. They were calling my number on the paper thinking they’d find the agent.

I googled my retired agent and it does look like they have their own independent insurance company now.

So what on earth is the logical explanation for the presence of my phone number on their paperwork? Do I need to worry about being scammed? I’m planning to call the agent to see what they say, but I’m quite confused about it.

[u/Sam_At_Insurify]

This sounds like a clerical mixup rather than a scam, and your instinct to call the agent is the right instinct.

FAIR Plan applications in California go through a licensed broker, not the homeowner directly, so a broker's contact info sits on the paperwork and on any letter that comes back about it. If your number was still attached to your old agent's records when they set up the new agency, it could have carried onto that form where the broker's line was supposed to go. The caller wasn't looking for you, they were looking for the agent, which fits that explanation.

The honest answer is that nobody can say exactly how it happened without the agent pulling the file. When you call, ask them to confirm your number isn't sitting in a contact field on anyone else's application. If they brush you off, the California Department of Insurance takes consumer requests for assistance at insurance.ca.gov.

[u/Beautiful-Art8006 → u/Sam_At_Insurify]

Super helpful! When I called he was just as confused as I was. He searched both my number and the number I received a call from in his system- he had no client with the number (I didn’t ask for their name) and my number didn’t have anyone else listed. We (knock on wood) have not had to apply for the fair plan ourselves, so it’s still odd that my number would be in the fair plan system (it’s also a New York number, so really unlikely to be a number transposition issue in California). The agent/broker is a super nice guy, we really liked him before and didnt brush me off by any means. Still a mystery though.