Patrick Wolff

Why Thrive LA endorses Patrick

Patrick Wolff is a financial analyst, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and two-time U.S. Chess Champion running for California Insurance Commissioner. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, built a home and auto insurance brokerage at Capital One, managed a hedge fund (Grandmaster Capital Management), and currently makes private real estate investments through BPW Capital Holding. He is a registered Democrat based in San Francisco who has never held public office. California's insurance market is in crisis. Insurers are fleeing the state, dropping coverage in fire-prone areas, and hiking premiums for the homeowners and businesses that remain. The cause is not greed. It is decades of regulatory overreach that made California too expensive and too unpredictable for carriers to operate in. The Insurance Commissioner needs to understand how insurance markets actually work, not treat them as a vehicle for ideological experimentation. Wolff's opponent, Jane Kim, is a former San Francisco supervisor who has proposed a government-run, single-payer insurance system. That approach would drive even more private insurers out of California, reduce competition, and leave consumers with fewer choices and higher costs. Wolff offers the opposite: market-based reform grounded in financial expertise. Wolff's platform centers on increasing competition among insurers, accelerating rate-review timelines so companies can adjust pricing to reflect actual risk, and creating transparency through public "report cards" that grade insurers on claims handling. Rather than layering on new mandates that raise costs for everyone, he wants to remove the regulatory friction that discourages carriers from writing policies in California. He has pledged not to accept campaign contributions from insurance companies, their employees, or their lobbyists, and not to accept corporate gifts. He has also pledged not to use the office as a political stepping stone. His endorsement from the Orange County Register's editorial board specifically cited his market-oriented approach and his understanding that overregulation harms consumers. He is also endorsed by GrowSF, a pro-housing, pro-accountability organization with a strong track record of backing candidates who prioritize results over ideology. Outside of insurance, Wolff has demonstrated civic commitment: he founded Families for San Francisco in 2020, served as Vice Chair of the SFUSD Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, and created Excellence in Investing for Children's Causes, a charity conference that has raised over $3.5 million. These are the credentials of someone who builds institutions rather than dismantling them. Patrick Wolff is the market-oriented, financially rigorous Insurance Commissioner California needs.