Pick Picken -State Farm Insurance Agent

04/29/2026

Volunteer Firefighters, Help Me Help You!

Because we're more rural than most parts of the state we in Eastern North Carolina especially rely on volunteer fire departments to keep us safe. State Farm recognizes that by providing $10,000 grants each year to volunteer fire departments to aid in the purchase of safety equipment.

Yet of the 150 grants State Farm paid last year none were to volunteer fire departments in our area. I would like to change that. If you are a volunteer firefighter who would like to help your department apply for one of the grants, please message me and I'll get you some information. The application window is May 4-7.

2000 fire departments will also get a one-year membership to the National Volunteer Fire Council.

12/22/2025

This Holiday Remember Our Jewish Friends Who Are Living in Fear

Yes, I have Jewish friends. Not many, but enough to know that they are suffering this holiday season fearing that they and fellow members of what they refer to as their ‘tribe’ are under assault.

When I first encountered this I thought it to be hyperbole. Yes, we’ve seen horrific incidents like what happened at Bondi Beach in Australia, but they seemed isolated to me. Sadly, mass shootings target all different groups of people, but their toll however horrible is a fraction of those killed by gun violence. The truth is that you are more likely to be killed on the streets of Chicago than you are in a mass casualty incident.

What I’m learning from my Jewish friends is that they as members of a religion which has faced persistent anti-semitism and the worst genocide in human history take incidents they see around the world very personally. There is a collective sense no matter how untrue it may seem to me that the world once again is turning against them. How else do you explain protests on college campuses and in the streets which glorify the terrorist group Hamas over the democratic state of Israel after it suffered from an unprovoked terror attack on October 6th? Those who praise the ‘Infitada’ or utter phrases such as ‘from the river to the sea’ are not ignorant of their threatening meaning. I shake my head when I see a protest sign which reads ‘Gays for Gaza’ knowing how dangerously unwelcome an openly gay person would be there.

What’s worse are the deeds. Attacks against Jews abroad has led authorities in many nations to dissuade them from celebrating their holidays openly. One friend of mine told me of a knife attack against a Jewish man by an assailant uttering anti-semitic slurs just a few blocks away from where her daughter lives in New York City. Another told me that she won’t be attending a Jewish celebration in DC this year because ‘you don’t know who is out there’. A Jewish man I follow on ‘X’ who lives in Canada regularly documents attacks on Jews there and the frequent vandalism of synagogues.

And so when I hear a friend describe how she broke down in tears while lighting a menorah candle this Hannukah, I am both saddened and angered at how evil is affecting her life.

I will give the Trump administration credit for cracking down. Universities which tolerated such hate are being held to account and those individuals who spread it, many of them here on foreign visas, are being deported. Contrast that to Canada, Europe and Australia which in my opinion have tolerated this open hatred far too much.

I have customers who are immigrants from the Middle East who came to live here peacefully and have assimilated well. They embrace everyone and hate no one. This is not about Middle-Easterners or Muslims but about individuals filled with hatred who have no place being here. To them I say good riddance and to our Jewish friends I say Shalom.

12/08/2025

Don’t Let an Unexpected Death Put Your Family in a Crisis

I have a customer who had a relative die unexpectedly last month in an industrial accident. He was in his 30’s with a wife who doesn’t work and children in the household and no life insurance. His extended family pitched in to handle final expense costs. The family believes his employer may be to blame but that could take years in court with no certainty of success. The is a full-blown family crisis.

Had this young father understood the risk he was taking and how affordable it would have been for him it is unimaginable to me he would have not had life insurance. Even having it at work, which is a great perk by the way, typically falls short of what a breadwinner needs to protect his family.

Later in life when the kids have moved out, life insurance is an important tool to keep financial stress from adding to the grief of losing a loved one. You likely have no idea when you are going or how your life will eventually end or even how your life will have changed by the time that happens, but a policy will help ensure your death is not a burden to anyone else.

Policies get more expensive with every birthday so the time to have that discussion is now. Please contact my office to see what kind of life insurance would be best for you.

12/03/2025

Our Christmas Tree is up and Jake has FREE CALENDARS for all visitors so feel free to stop by!

12/03/2025

If You’re a Homeowner, State Farm has a Free Offer You Should Not Refuse

A grateful customer called my office the other day to thank State Farm for potentially saving his life. How? Let me get to that in a moment.

One of the things State Farm does very well in North Carolina to the benefit of all people with insurance, not just their customers, is lobby the state legislature for more customer friendly laws. This past year, State Farm helped get passed a law which allows insurance companies to give away safety devices to their policy holders in North Carolina. In the past, doing so would have been considered ‘rebating’, an illegal practice used to entice new potential customers.

The specific safety device State Farm had in mind is called a ‘Ting’. Once plugged into an outlet, it monitors the electrical activity throughout your home and can even sense issues in the grid surrounding it. It’s a win-win in that it can prevent fires which both endanger lives and property and could lead to a potentially costly claim.

And that’s exactly what happened with one of my customers. His new ‘Ting’ went off in the middle of the night. Thinking this might have something to do with the power line connected to his house, he called the city. Inspectors found that a squirrel had chewed up a portion of the line to his home causing his electric current to fluctuate wildly which easily could have started a fire. Darn squirrels!

State Farm is steadily rolling out Tings to their customers statewide and if you are one, get it … it’s totally free! You can find more information at https://st8.fm/4pDrECm.

If not, call me for a quote. You have nothing to lose and possibly some-Ting to gain! (See what I did there)?

11/26/2025

This Thanksgiving I’m Thankful for Gratitude

I confess I’m struggling in some ways. Owning and running my own business has been more difficult than I ever anticipated. Last year I began a journey to get healthier and lose weight. I am healthier and stronger but recently the weight loss has kind of plateaued and I'm frustrated by that. My attempts at getting back into the dating scene at my age have left me with some bizarre stories to tell.

But that said, I do have so much. A safe and secure home in a nice neighborhood, reliable transportation, and more than enough to feed and clothe me. I am able to own my own business and serve customers who choose me in part because I have good employees dedicated to serving them. I live in an amazing country where I can do what I wish and express myself freely within reason. Those are not little things, and life really is good here!

So as I was driving the other day singing along to a great song on my car’s high quality sound system while getting to my destination using a safe, state-of-the-art freeway system, I took a moment to feel a little gratitude. I’m an extraordinarily fortunate person. Fortunate to be born here in a nation which is imperfect but has always strived to be ‘a more perfect’ union. Americans are the envy of many around the world. Many of my customers came here from far off places such as Jordan, Venezuela, Mexico, Korea, India, etc. because life is just better here. Don’t take my word for it. Ask them! Sometimes I do.

Some Americans claim that we’re too divided. Okay, but that division stems from the fact that we are free. That our individual backgrounds and experiences help us form a belief system which we are allowed to voice whether it be in a voting booth, political rally or at a peaceful protest march.

So allow yourself to feel a little gratitude this Thanksgiving. No, your life is not and never will be perfect, but if you have the ability to read this post, you have many, many blessings that frankly were just handed to you (and some no doubt you’ve also earned for yourself in a country which rewards achievement and merit).

Gratitude doesn’t mean we stop trying to improve. It means we take stock of the improvements we’ve made so that we know the effort does produce results and is worth it.

Gratitude is a choice. It’s the decision to grieve when you lose someone close to you ... but to also be grateful for what wonderful things they brought into your life which makes you miss them so much. To paraphrase a song, gratitude means you will never not "know what you've lost until it's gone" because you fully appreciated it while you had it.

That’s why I wish you a wonderful meal Thursday hopefully with loving family and friends where you give thanks for all your blessings. I then I hope you’ll make the choice to show some gratitude every other day of the year as well because as an American you have good reason to!

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

10/01/2025

Stacker compiled a list of the counties in North Carolina with the oldest homes using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Counties are ranked by median year the structure was built according to 2023 ...

Stacker ranked the counties with the oldest homes in North Carolina using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

09/30/2025

Discover how AI technology is propelling revenue growth for 93% of small businesses, as Zoom unveils its latest initiative aimed at empowering entrepreneurs with innovative tools and resources for success.

Discover how AI technology is propelling revenue growth for 93% of small businesses, as Zoom unveils its latest initiative aimed at empowering entrepreneurs with innovative tools and resources for success.

09/04/2025

Jake is all revved up for the big game tonight. Go Eagles!

07/04/2025

Office mascot Georgia the Boston Terrier before the fireworks go off! Hope you are enjoying a fantastic fourth.