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State Farm is the biggest property and casualty insurance company in the U.S., according to AM Best. The company has agents in every state except Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
And it’s popular for a reason. State Farm consistently gets above-average customer satisfaction scores in J.D. Power surveys about auto, home and business insurance.
If you already have a State Farm agent you trust, talk to them about your commercial insurance options. But if not, don’t go out of your way. State Farm doesn’t offer any business insurance policies or online features that you won’t find from other insurers.
Instead, find an independent agent near you. An independent agent has the freedom to get you several business insurance quotes (though not from State Farm).
With a State Farm agent, you’ll be locked into that company’s policy — and its price. Shopping around is especially important if you operate in a technical field with specific insurance needs, which can make costs harder to predict.
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State Farm pros and cons
Pros
Offers many types of commercial insurance, including specialized coverage like surety bonds and farm and ranch insurance.
You can access your certificate of insurance online.
Cons
You can’t get a quote or purchase a policy online.
More complaints than expected about both commercial liability and commercial property insurance given State Farm’s market share.
What State Farm does well
Hands-on local agents
State Farm is generally well-regarded for its agents. The company typically scores well in J.D. Power’s annual business insurance customer satisfaction survey, though it slipped below average in 2025.
State Farm also boasts that most of its agents own their own businesses, which means they can relate to business owners. There’s certainly some truth to that.
Sells most business insurance policies
Most businesses can probably get all the coverage they need from State Farm. (Here's a list of options.) Availability can vary by state, though.
The company offers business owner’s policies, workers’ comp and employer’s liability coverage. You can get property insurance for your building, equipment and other assets as well. Unless you work in a very specific niche, you won’t have to look elsewhere.
Where State Farm falls short
Downgraded financial strength ratings
In 2025, two credit rating agencies — AM Best and S&P Global — downgraded State Farm’s financial strength rating. In AM Best’s evaluation, most of State Farm’s entities fell from an A++ rating to an A+ rating. That’s still in the “superior” range, just less robust than before. But a couple of subsidiaries fell into the “B” range, which AM Best describes as “good.”
These changes followed five years of underwriting losses, meaning State Farm collected less in premiums than it had to pay out in claims. To rebalance that ratio, the company either has to raise rates, non-renew policies in loss-prone areas like wildfire risk zones, or do both.
Beyond that, in May 2026, California charged State Farm with hundreds of violations of state law in its response to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. These included slow-walking investigations, reassigning adjusters mid-claim and underpaying claims.
Taken together, these actions suggest State Farm is struggling to adapt — to climate change, rising property values and other changes. The company isn’t in crisis right now, but it’s had a tough few years.
Limited online features
State Farm depends on its local agents, which is a double-edged sword. Policyholders can do very few things on their own online.
For instance, you can pay a bill, view your policy documents and create a certificate of insurance. But you can only file an auto insurance claim and see a list of your current and previous claims. Your agent has to do everything else, including filing business claims.
If you have a great agent, this might be a relief. But if not — or if you just like to be more hands-on — this might add even more frustration.
How we evaluated State Farm business insurance
NerdWallet’s business insurance star ratings include these factors:
- Financial strength (33%). This tells us how likely an insurance company is to be able to pay out claims if there’s a major disaster or financial crisis. State Farm’s parent company and most of its entities have “excellent” ratings from AM Best. That’s slightly below the top rating of “superior.”
- Customer complaints (33%). The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collects data about how many complaints an insurer’s customers file. Compared to what we’d expect given its market share, State Farm received slightly more complaints about general liability insurance and more complaints about commercial property insurance between 2022 and 2024. The company earned a relatively low score here.
- Purchase process (17%). State Farm only sells policies through captive agents. They are only allowed to sell State Farm policies, so they won’t give you options from other insurance companies. In general, we recommend working with independent agents, who can help you get quotes from several different insurers so you can choose the best one for your business.
- Customer support (17%). State Farm provides little centralized customer service. Instead, the website tells policyholders to take questions to their local agent. You’ll file claims through your agent, too. If you have a great agent, that probably makes for a great experience. But if you want the option to DIY some things, State Farm probably isn’t the right choice for you.
I take a few additional steps when writing reviews of business insurers. These don’t currently inform our star ratings, but you’ll see details about them below:
- Aggregating customer reviews and complaints. I used an AI tool to summarize what policyholders say about State Farm on websites like Reddit, Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau. We don’t factor this feedback into star ratings because it’s usually anonymous and we can’t verify it. Plus, it can be tricky to separate complaints about commercial insurance from those about home, auto and life insurance. But still, it offers some insight into customers’ experience with a company overall.
- Trying the online quote process. State Farm doesn’t offer online quotes, so this wasn’t part of my process here. It has a “start a quote” button on its website. But that leads to a simple intake form to have an agent contact you.
What small-business owners think about State Farm business insurance
I read through online forums like Reddit and review sites like Consumer Affairs to understand how users feel about State Farm for business insurance. I then used an AI tool to help analyze overall sentiment online. Here are the themes that stood out.
👍 Agent relationships and customer service
Some online reviews support J.D. Power’s findings between 2021 and 2024 — State Farm provides solid customer service. People say their agents are helpful and claims representatives are professional.
Not everybody agrees with this, of course. But in my experience, most people who have good experiences don’t bother to leave online reviews. In general, State Farm seems as well or better regarded than other insurers I’ve reviewed.
👎 Adjuster delays
Online reviewers say State Farm adjusters come late (if at all) and the company slow-walks claims.
One person wrote that after the roof blew off their building, a State Farm adjuster never came to inspect it and they waited 40 days for their check. Another said an auto insurance claim took three months. And auto insurance policyholders say adjusters didn’t answer their calls or declined to consider other estimates of their vehicle’s value.
I’ve seen complaints like this about many insurance companies. But California officials have accused State Farm of similar things, which lends more credence to these concerns.
In theory, this is the kind of thing your agent should be able to help with. There are limits to their power, though. They can’t make your claim move faster, for instance, but you should feel like they’re advocating for you.
👎 Claims denials
Two online commenters said they were surprised to learn their business interruption coverage excluded utility repair work and sewer and drain backups. Both said their State Farm agent never explained that.
These gaps are common in standard business interruption insurance. These policies exclude external issues that shut you down, like a sewer problem. And even if you add off-premises coverage, only an accident triggers payouts. Maintenance of an electrical grid wouldn’t count.
But this highlights the downside of a company like State Farm. It prides itself on agent relationships. If the customer service lets you down, or if your agent doesn’t explain something without you asking, that sets you up for extra disappointment.
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What policies does State Farm sell?
State Farm offers:
- Business owner’s policies.
- General liability insurance.
- Business property insurance, including options for computers, seasonal increases, outdoor signs and losses caused by sewer or drain backups.
- Business interruption insurance, including options for utility interruptions.
- Employee dishonesty insurance.
- Coverage for accounts receivable, money and securities.
- Equipment breakdown coverage.
- Data breach and identity restoration coverage.
- Commercial auto insurance.
- Umbrella insurance.
- Workers’ comp.
- Farm and ranch insurance.
- Surety and fidelity bonds.
But availability varies by state. For instance, when I put a San Francisco address in State Farm’s quote intake, the only option was surety and fidelity bonds. A New York location provided more choices, but not the complete list above. (There was an “Other” choice in the dropdown, though.)
From what I can tell, State Farm doesn’t publish a map of which policies are available where. So while you can’t get a quote online, that form offers some value. It can at least help you find out if State Farm is a option for your needs or not.
How to get State Farm business insurance
State Farm sells all its insurance policies through its agents. State Farm agents are “captive,” which means they can only sell policies from State Farm.
If you already have a State Farm agent, talk to them about your commercial insurance needs. You might be able to save on premiums if you stick with the company and bundle several policies. If not, call your local office. You can find business insurance agents near you via State Farm’s website.
Methodology
Business insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet rewards business insurance companies for reliability and good service. We calculate star ratings based on scores in about a dozen categories. These include:
- Each company's financial strength.
- How many complaints customers made relative to its market share.
- How easy it is to get coverage.
- How accessible customer service is.
Learn more about how we rate small-business insurance companies.
Our editorial team routinely fact-checks and updates these data points. We also adjust our scoring on an ongoing basis. This helps our star ratings reflect changing industry norms. For instance, in 2026, we began evaluating how easy insurers make it to add an additional insured.
Our ratings are a guide. But insurance policy details and prices can vary widely. We encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.
Insurer complaints methodology
One key factor in our star ratings is how many complaints insurance companies get. Here's how we arrive at that score.
Disappointed customers can file a complaint with their state's insurance department. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collects, analyzes and groups complaints by business line and insurance company every year. A business line is a specific type of coverage, like workers’ comp.
Then, the NAIC calculates a complaint ratio for each company. It divides the company's share of complaints by its share of total premiums for each line of business. It then adds these ratio values to their official complaint index.
- A complaint ratio of 1 means a company received about the expected number of complaints relative to its size.
- A ratio of 2 means it received twice as many complaints as expected.
- A ratio of 0 means it received half as many complaints as expected.
NerdWallet obtains the raw NAIC data every year. We aggregate results at the company level and fact-check these results. Then we calculate a three-year average of each insurer's complaint ratio and convert it to a score for our star ratings.
Business insurance star ratings consider complaints about two lines of business: commercial liability and commercial property. We analyze complaint data on commercial auto and workers' comp policies too. But we don't currently incorporate these into our ratings since they're less universal.
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- 1. AM Best. Best's Rankings: 2025 US Property/Casualty NPW Rise 5%; Top-25 Growth Strongest at Progressive. Accessed Jun 12, 2026.
- 2. J.D. Power. More Small Businesses Consider Dropping Their Insurers, JD Power Finds. Accessed Jun 12, 2026.
- 3. California Department of Insurance. California takes legal action against State Farm after investigation finds widespread mishandling of LA wildfire claims. Accessed Jun 12, 2026.
