Tag: california fire insurance

State Farm’s Landmark Rate Hearing Could Rewrite California Insurance Rules

H. Cutner
State Farm Financial Challenges

State Farm’s Striking Rate Hike Request: A Closer Look at the Unprecedented Hearing The stakes couldn’t be higher as California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara convened an extraordinary public rate hearing in Oakland, a rarity in the state’s regulatory landscape. At the heart of the drama? State Farm’s urgent request to hike its property insurance rates by an average of 22% for homeowners, alongside increases of 15% for renters and condo owners, and a whopping 38% for rental dwellings. The Los Angeles County fires, catastrophic in both scale and cost, loom…

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$1 Billion Plan to Stabilize The California FAIR Plan Insurance Program

G. Turner
California FAIR Plan Insurance Program Stability plan

Funding the FAIR Plan Without Overburdening Californians To address the financial pressures caused by rising wildfire claims, the California FAIR Plan is set to receive a $1 billion financial boost. Announced by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, this initiative balances the need for immediate stability with measures designed to protect policyholders from undue financial strain, ensuring essential support for wildfire recovery efforts continues. The FAIR Plan as a Safety Net The California FAIR Plan provides critical fire insurance coverage to homeowners and renters in high-risk wildfire zones who are unable…

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What are kitty cat storms and what do they mean to home insurance?

Julie Campbell
kitty cat storms

These secondary weather systems are striking areas across the US, leaving damage behind While we tend to think of the most damaging weather that will impact home insurance as massive systems that take a long time to build and then stomp their way across the region, they’re not alone. Severe-convective storms are what the industry calls “secondary perils” The severe-convective storms, also known as kitty cat storms, are thunderstorms that build rapidly to the point of being large and powerful but disappear once again within a span of days or…

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California fire station project on pause because it can’t get property insurance

Julie Campbell
Property insurance - Pause Button on Fire Station

The crisis in the state is largely from wildfires, but even those battling them can’t get insured Wildfire risk is very high in many parts of California, leading to what many have called a property insurance crisis in both the residential and business markets. Many insurers have withdrawn from selling More recently, the size of the issue became particularly clear when a project to upgrade a fire station in the area stalled due to a lack of property insurance availability. Homeowners living in California’s mountains face a particularly high wildfire…

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California fire insurance companies decline almost 350,000 policy renewals

H. Cutner
California fire insurance companies - Firefighters fighting wildfire

Insurers are taking big steps back from the industry in the state’s highest risk areas. New data from the state shows that California fire insurance companies have declined the renewal of almost 350,000 home policies since 2015. This was most common in areas with the highest wildfire risk. The data showed that insurers are trying to reduce their risk exposure as wildfires become more costly. The newly released data did indicate that California fire insurance companies have dropped hundreds of thousands of customers. However, it did not point out how…

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Fire insurance losses in California broke the $1 billion mark

Julie Campbell
fire insurance home

The payouts for claims for damage caused by two tremendous blazes in the northern part of the state were huge. Two massively destructive wildfires in Northern California not only killed six people and caused thousands of residents to have to leave their homes behind, but they were also damaging enough to lead to over $1 billion in losses covered by fire insurance. This represents a preliminary estimate that has now been released by the California insurance department. These two different wildfires began burning in September, only days apart from each…

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Homeowners insurance rates spike as fire risk rises

Julie Campbell
California wildfire insurance fire season homeowners

Certain areas of California are watching their rates soar as wildfire smoke moves closer. Residents of California who are living near regions that have recently started facing increased wildfire risks are now discovering that their homeowners insurance has been heading skyward with the plumes of black smoke. The changing fire risk areas have forced many homeowners to see a doubling in their insurance rates. There are a number of different factors that have caused fire to become an increasing component in the homeowners insurance rates. The most obvious has been…

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