California Wildfires: Issues, Challenges and Lessons for Insurance and Reinsurance
Nieuws
03-03-2025
Saliya Jinadasa
The recent wildfires in California have left a trail of destruction with over 15,000 structures destroyed, multiple deaths and displacing over 100,000 people. This article examines underlying issues, challenges and lessons for the insurance and reinsurance industries.
Woes for home and business owners
Limited availability of insurance
With rising catastrophe losses, home and business owners face the challenge of finding insurance cover.
Recently, State Farm and Allstate, two major providers of home insurance, have stopped issuing polices in California, citing inadequate pricing to keep up with increasing losses, rising construction expenses and elevated reinsurance costs in the prevailing hard reinsurance market[5].
Limited availability of cover has pushed homeowners in California to seek protection from the state insurer, Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan, as a last resort.
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