Colorado State University researchers are standing by their prediction for a “slightly above-average” 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, while warning of heightened tropical activity over the next two weeks.
Led by Dr. Phil Klotzbach, senior research scientist at CSU and Triple-I non-resident scholar, the team maintains their forecast of 16 named storms, eight hurricanes, and three major hurricanes through November 30. The forecast calls for 115 percent of average hurricane activity compared to the 1991-2020 baseline, a decrease from 2024’s 130 percent. However, the immediate outlook is more concerning, with a 55 percent chance of above-normal activity through August 19.
Current activity includes Tropical Storm Dexter, which formed off North Carolina on August 3 and may strengthen to Category 1 status as it moves into the Central Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center is also monitoring a new system labeled Invest 96L in the Eastern Atlantic. The term “invest” is a naming convention used by the National Hurricane Center to identify a system that could develop into a tropical depression or tropical storm within the next seven days. The designation allows the agency to run specialized computer forecast models to track the area’s potential storm development.
The heightened forecast stems from unusually warm tropical Atlantic waters.
“Weaker winds over the past few weeks have reduced evaporation and ocean mixing, leading to faster warming,” Klotzbach explained. These warmer waters provide more fuel for hurricane development and create atmospheric conditions that favor storm formation.
Major hurricane landfall probabilities remain elevated: 48 percent for the entire continental U.S. coastline, 24 percent for the East Coast, and 31 percent for the Gulf Coast — all above historical averages.
Parents are increasingly open to using technology to keep their teen drivers safe on the road, a recent survey from Nationwide finds.
The survey found 4 out of 5 parents would enroll their teens in telematics programs that reward safe driving. This enthusiasm for tech-based solutions comes despite mixed parental assessments of their teens’ driving abilities: While 42 percent rate their teen’s driving as “good” or “excellent”, similar percentages express concerns about distracted driving and reckless behavior.
“Parents want to feel confident that their teens are making smart choices behind the wheel,” says Casey Kempton, Nationwide president of P&C personal lines. “These tools help make that possible—not just by monitoring behavior, but by encouraging better habits through positive reinforcement.”
Despite recognizing the value of safety technology, adoption remains limited. While 96 percent of parents said they believe dashcams provide valuable evidence after accidents, only 26 percent of teen drivers actually have them installed.
The survey reveals a broader trend in which consumers are drawn to telematics and monitoring technologies, though motivations vary. While parents prioritize safety benefits, many consumers are equally interested in the insurance premium discounts these programs can provide.
“This isn’t just about technology,” Kempton says. “It’s about creating a culture of accountability and shared responsibility on the road.”
As comfort with AI-enabled monitoring grows, it appears that families are embracing a future in which technology supports — but does not replace — good judgment.
Yesterday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula sent tsunami waves across the Pacific, placing Hawaii under evacuation orders, triggering advisories along the U.S. West Coast, and emphasizing a critical truth about natural catastrophes: They don’t respect borders and tend not to give warnings.
While the immediate impacts were relatively contained—with waves reaching up to 4 meters in Russia’s coastal towns and smaller surges affecting Japan, Hawaii, and Alaska—the event offers a potent and timely reminder about the importance of preparation and investment in resilience.
Coverage Confusion That Could Cost
Standard homeowners insurance policies don’t cover tsunami damage. Neither do earthquake policies, despite the seismic trigger. Tsunami damage falls under flood coverage—a separate policy that many coastal property owners don’t carry.
Flood insurance purchase rates nationally are low – even in coastal communities. This creates a potential perfect storm of financial vulnerability. Communities that experienced evacuation orders yesterday, from Oahu to the Oregon coast might well have been saddled with massive, largely uninsured losses had the tsunami played out differently.
Low Frequency, High Consequence
Tsunami risk represents the most challenging category of natural disasters: extremely rare but potentially catastrophic. Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes that occur with some regularity, major tsunamis affecting U.S. coastlines are generational events. This rarity can breed complacency.
Yesterday’s event, while not causing major damage to U.S. properties, provided invaluable data for catastrophe modelers. The wave propagation patterns, arrival times, and coastal impacts across Hawaii, Alaska, and the West Coast offer fresh insights into how a more severe event might unfold. Insurers and reinsurers are likely already incorporating this data into their risk models.
Building Resilience Through Partnership
The beauty of a “predict and prevent” model of risk management is that it can address a multiplicity of perils. While tsunamis are rare, flooding is not. Recent years have witnessed a rise in inland flooding related to tropical storms, atmospheric rivers, and severe convective storms. The communities affected by catastrophic flood events like the recent ones in Texas and New Mexico and the devastating 2024 floods related to Hurricane Helene tend to have even lower flood insurance “take-up” rates than coastal communities.
The most effective risk management will require unprecedented collaboration between public and private sectors. The NFIP, state insurance departments, and private insurers need to work together on pricing models that accurately reflect risk while remaining accessible to coastal communities. At the same time, communities and businesses must plan and invest together to prepare not just one but many potential climate-related risks.
Florida’s top five auto insurance groups are cutting personal auto rates by a statewide average of 6.5 percent due to legislative reforms that addressed legal system abuse and assignment of benefits (AOB) claim fraud, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) announced this week.
“Citizens of the Sunshine State are now clearly seeing the benefits of a more stable and affordable insurance marketplace,” Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan said.
State leaders credit the reforms for driving down both average rates and loss ratios, with Florida now reporting the lowest personal auto liability loss ratio in the United States, OIR said. Improved underwriting results and reduced litigation are helping insurers lower premiums, while increased consumer shopping is boosting competition and affordability across the state’s auto insurance market.
Resistance to reforms persists
Despite the measurable benefits to consumers, these reforms are under attack in the state legislature. HB 947 and HB 837 would undo much of this progress.
“The continued reduction in auto insurance rates is yet another sign that Florida’s reforms are working,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “We will protect our reforms from those who seek to undo them and continue to fight for Floridians.”
Other states, including Georgia and Louisiana, are following Florida’s lead.
Premium relief for Florida drivers comes on top of significant improvements in the state’s property insurance market, where many consumers are securing better rates for their home insurance due to legislative reform and a competitive market with more than a dozen new carriers, Triple-I Director of Corporate Communications Mark Friedlander told BestWire.
“For many years, unscrupulous glass vendors preyed upon Florida drivers at car washes, gas stations, and shopping center parking lots with promises of gift cards in exchange for signing over their glass repair,” Friedlander said. “When insurers rejected these highly inflated claims, frivolous lawsuits followed.”
As property/casualty insurers increase their focus on predicting and preventing costly damage that drives up claims and premiums, telematics technology has come to play an increasing role. From video doorbells that reduce theft and vandalism to “smart plumbing” solutions that detect leaks and shut off water before in-home flooding can occur, these technologies clearly offer value to homeowners and insurers.
But how much value?
Whisker Labs – maker of the Ting home fire prevention solution – has taken on the challenge of quantifying its product’s efficacy and return on investment. In a research partnership with Octagram Analytics for independent data analysis and modeling and Triple-I for its insurance industry expertise and insight, Whisker Labs found that Ting reduced fire claims within the study sample by an estimated 63 percent, resulting in 0.39 fewer electrical fire claims per 1,000 home years of experience, in the third year after installation. This translates into a fire claims reduction benefit of $81 per customer.
“This study provides concrete evidence of the value that telematics technology can deliver,” said Patrick Schmid, chief insurance officer at Triple-I. “While IoT solutions are gaining traction with many success stories, rigorous analysis of claims reduction has been harder to find until now. This analysis clearly shows Ting reduces claims and provides a positive return on investment for insurers.”
Ting helps protect homes from electrical fires by using advanced AI to detect arcing, the precursor to most electrical fires. Once connected to a single outlet, Ting analyzes 30 million measurements per second, analyzing voltage at high frequencies to detect tiny electrical anomalies and power quality problems. These hazards can originate from wiring in the home, connected devices and appliances, or even the power coming in from the utility. On average, Ting detects and mitigates fire hazards in 1 out of every 60 homes it protects.
“Ting is about saving lives and homes – that’s always been our mission,” said Bob Marshall, CEO and cofounder of Whisker Labs. “By analyzing verified claims data over time, this analysis shows that what’s best for families also delivers a strong financial return for insurers. Prevention is better for everyone.”
Whisker Labs works with a growing community of 30 insurers who provide Ting to their customers for free. More than one million Tings are deployed in the United States, and approximately 50,000 new Tings are installed each month.
In addition to monitoring voltage and features of voltage at high frequencies to detect arcing that is indicative of fire hazards, Ting has a temperature sensor that monitors the temperature within the home.
“When the temperature drops below 42 degrees, an alert is issued,” Marshall said. “Thus, Ting detects and warns about conditions that can result in frozen and burst pipes and alerts the homeowner to correct the situation before damage occurs. Over the past three years, we have issued low-temperature warnings to about 1 in 560 customers per year.”
Measuring the value
Like Ting, other peril-based IoT solutions issue alerts and warnings when a hazard is detected. Thousands of hazards are detected and alerts sent, but how do you know that this reduces claims? How do you estimate the return on investment for these devices? How can you prove that the bad thing, a loss and a claim, didn’t occur?
“We developed a methodology to do this in the real world with existing customers and experience data,” said Whisker Labs Chief Scientist Stan Heckman.
Whisker Labs and Octagram had to overcome challenges related to limited data and sampling bias. To address these, a self-controlled study was developed that assesses claims over time in homes with Ting in place. (See paper for a fuller explanation of the methodology).
The chart below shows how the number of fire claims in Ting-equipped homes declines over time. The claims frequencies observed and associated percent reduction in claims are highly dependent on the definition of the sample of non-cat fire claims provided by carriers that participated in the analysis. However, this does not affect the observed absolute reduction.
Using data from Triple-I and Verisk, Whisker Labs determined that Ting provides a loss-prevention benefit of $81 per home per year. (See paper for details).
“Add in benefits associated with reduction in water-related losses from frozen pipes and failing sump pumps and water heaters,” and the benefits are likely substantially higher, Marshall said. Insurers who provide Ting to their policyholders also may enjoy improvements in customer retention.
Devastating flooding in central Texas over the July 4, 2025, weekend highlighted several aspects of the state’s risk profile that also are relevant to the rest of the country, according to the latest Triple-I Issues Brief. One is the rising incidence of severe inland flooding related to tropical storms.
Tropical Storm Barry made landfall in Mexico on June 29 and weakened quickly, but its remnant moisture drifted northward into Texas, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University and a Triple-I non-resident scholar.
“A slow-moving low-pressure area developed and helped bring up the moisture-rich air rom Barry and concentrated it over the Hill Country of central Texas,” Klotzbach said. “The soil was also extremely hard from prior drought conditions, which exacerbated the flash flooding that occurred.”
Such flooding far from landfall has become more frequent and severe in recent years. In Texas – as in much of the United States, particularly far from the coasts – few homeowners have flood insurance. Many believe flood damage is covered by their homeowners’ or renters’ insurance. Others believe the coverage is not worth buying if their mortgage lender doesn’t require it. In Kerr County, where much of the July 4 flooding took place, flood insurance take-up rates through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) were 2.5 percent.
Convective storms, fires, and freezes
But tropical storms aren’t always the impetus for flooding. In July 2023, a series of intense thunderstorms resulted in heavy rainfall, deadly flash floods, and severe river flooding in eastern Kentucky and central Appalachia. The conditions that lead to such severe convective storms also are prevalent in Texas.
Severe convective storms are a growing source of losses for property/casualty insurers. According to Gallagher Re, severe convective storm events in 2023 and 2024 “have cost global insurers a remarkable US$143 billion, of which US$120 billion occurred in the U.S. alone.”
Given its aridity and winds, it should be no surprise that Texas is highly subject to wildfire – but the state also has been increasingly prone to severe winter storms and debilitating freezes. On Valentine’s Day 2021, snow fell across most of Texas, accumulating as temperatures stayed below freezing and precipitation continued through the night. A catastrophic failure of the state’s independent electric grid exacerbated these conditions as snow and ice shut down roads and many homes suffered pipe bursts and multiple days without power.
Texas’s 2021 experience illustrates how grid instability can act as a “risk multiplier” for natural disasters. The entire U.S. electric power grid is increasingly vulnerable as the infrastructure ages and proliferating AI data centers increase demand.
Need for data and collaboration
The severe damage and loss of life from the July 4 flooding have naturally raised the question of whether the Trump Administration’s reductions in National Weather Service staffing contributed to the high human cost of this event. While it is hard to say with certainty, these cuts have affected how NWS works – for example, in its use of weather balloons to monitor weather. As early as April, staffing data gathered by NWS indicated that field offices were “critically understaffed”.
In June, panelists at Triple-I’s Joint Industry Forum expressed concern about the impact of the federal cuts on weather monitoring and modeling, as well as programs to help communities adequately prepare for and recover from disasters. Triple-I has published extensively on the need for insurers to shift from exclusively focusing on repairing and replacing property to predicting events and preventing damage.
Collective action at all levels – individual, commercial, and government – is needed to mitigate risks, build resilience, and reduce fraud and legal system abuse. Triple-I and its members are committed to fostering such action and regularly provide data and analysis to inform the necessary conversations.
Recent developments in the atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea have led researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) to make slight improvements to their hurricane forecast for the 2025 Atlantic-basin season, in an update published Wednesday.
Triple-I non-resident scholar Phil Klotzbach, Ph.D., a senior research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at CSU, and the CSU TC-RAMS research team are now predicting 16 total named storms through the end of the year, a small drop from their original forecast of 17.
“The primary reason for the slight decrease in our outlook is both observed and predicted high levels of Caribbean wind shear,” Klotzbach said. “High levels of Caribbean shear in June and July are typically associated with less active hurricane seasons.”
Klotzbach warned, however, that peak hurricane season – which typically occurs from mid-August through late October – could still be very active, despite current atmospheric conditions.
“The subtropical eastern Atlantic and portions of the tropical Atlantic are warmer than normal,” he said. “The current Atlantic sea surface temperature pattern is fairly similar to what we typically observe in July prior to active Atlantic hurricane seasons.”
By William Nibbelin, Senior Research Actuary, Triple-I
The U.S. property/casualty (P/C) insurance industry is entering the latter half of 2025 with a nuanced underwriting landscape, as revealed in the latest “Insurance Economics and Underwriting Projections: A Forward View” report from Triple-I and Milliman. While personal auto continues to be a strong performer, the general liability sector is grappling with persistent profitability concerns.
Industrywide Trends
The overall industrywide net combined ratio (NCR) for 2025 is forecast at 99.3, a 2.7-point increase from 2024. Despite some line-specific challenges, a broader return to profitability is anticipated in 2026. The overall Net Written Premium (NWP) growth rate for 2025 is projected to be 6.8 percent, a decrease of 2.0 points from 2024, marking the lowest growth since 2020. Personal lines growth is expected to outpace commercial lines by 1.5 percentage points in 2025, though this gap is predicted to narrow by 2027.
Economic Influences
Michel Léonard, Ph.D., CBE, chief economist and data scientist at Triple-I, highlighted the resilience of the U.S. economy and the P&C industry amidst tariffs and trade uncertainty.
“The insurance industry’s economic growth drivers continue to outperform overall U.S. GDP growth,” he stated. However, Léonard cautioned that revised economic data for the first half of the year might paint a weaker picture of the U.S. economy, potentially leading to more widespread concerns of contraction or even recession heading into the fall.
He also noted, “With inventories running low, their depletion will now accelerate inflation and slow growth for the rest of the year.”
Léonard pointed out that price increases due to tariffs and other economic factors have been most severe for personal auto, with used car and truck prices increasing by 7.7 percent in the first half of this year. The P&C industry typically lags the broader economy by one to two quarters, suggesting that a potential broader economic contraction could impact the industry starting in Q1 or Q2 of 2026.
Personal Lines Underwriting Performance
Personal auto continues to be a robust area, with a forecast 2025 NCR of 96.0. This is approximately 1 point higher than 2024, but the line remains on track for continued profitability.
Homeowners insurance, however, faced significant challenges in Q1 2025 due to the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. The Q1 2025 Loss Ratio for homeowners was the worst first-quarter experienced in over 15 years and the worst of any quarter since Q2 2011.
Commercial Lines Underwriting Performance
Jason B. Kurtz, FCAS, MAAA, a principal and consulting actuary at Milliman, noted that commercial auto is forecast to remain unprofitable from 2025 to 2027, despite an estimated double-digit NWP growth in 2025.
Commercial Property with a forecast 2025 NCR of 88.3 remains profitable while 5.5 points over 2024. Strong premium growth from 2021 through 2023 contributed to profitability in the two most recent years, but there’s been a significant slowdown with premiums growing just 4.2 percent for Q1 2025. Commercial Multi-Peril swung to profitability in 2024 after combined ratios above 100 dating back to 2016. However, poor Q1 2025 results are driving a forecast 2025 Net Combined Ratio of 101.0.
The general liability line continues to be a source of profitability concern. The Q1 2025 General Liability Loss Ratio was the second worst first quarter in more than 15 years, showing less than a 1-point improvement from Q1 2024. For general liability, he stated, “the NCR is expected to improve in 2026-2027 but remain unprofitable. It is worrisome that the 1st quarter 2025 direct incurred loss ratio was only marginally improved relative to the 1st quarter of 2024, and that these two results are the highest first quarter loss ratios in more than 15 years. On a positive note, premium growth does appear to be picking up.”
In contrast, workers compensation continues its strong performance. Kurtz highlighted that the forecasted 2025 NCR of 90.6 represents a 1.0-point improvement from prior estimates, as the Q1 2025 Loss Ratio was the lowest in over 15 years. Stephen Cooper, Executive Director and Senior Economist at the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), commented on the labor market’s impact, stating, “While employment has been concentrated amongst fewer industries, the labor market has shown resilience and continued strong payroll growth for workers compensation.”
He also added, “With economic uncertainty elevated and recession concerns resurfacing, consumer behavior will be important to watch.”
*Note: Insurance Economics and Underwriting Projections: A Forward View is a quarterly report available exclusively to Triple-I members and Milliman customers.
Analysis based on granular, cutting-edge data is essential to staying ahead in our rapidly shifting risk landscape. During Triple-I’s Joint Industry Forum in Chicago, two “Risk Take” presenters dove deep into the innovative data initiatives they engaged in to help turn these challenges into new opportunities for insurers.
Balancing consumer needs
With natural catastrophe frequency and supply chain uncertainty on the rise, so are home maintenance costs. Estimated to exceed $10,000 annually in 2024 – at a 5.9 percent year-over-year increase – home maintenance further weighs against the mounting costs of premium rates and property taxes across the U.S., leading many homeowners to forgo investing in at-home risk mitigation like smart home telematics.
“Across the providers we’ve talked to, adoption of telematics falls somewhere between the single digits,” said presenter James Bilodeau, CEO and founder of PreFix Inc. “The reason is simple: the value proposition of what we would like homeowners to do isn’t important enough compared to what homeowners actually need.”
For Bilodeau, the solution is also simple: combine advanced technology with routine preventative maintenance. By providing personalized, year-round home repair, Bilodeau’s Texas-based firm aims to mitigate losses while gathering unique primary data on the properties they service. Insurers can use this data to develop telematics technology and more accurately price the associated risks.
Such data collection “creates a flywheel in which we help our partners delight their customers with exceptional service and hit directly at affordability issues, both with home maintenance and in premium reduction,” Bilodeau said.
After a successful pilot program, USAA expanded its partnership with the company to offer discounted maintenance services to members who sign up for PreFix. Noting that the company is pursuing partnerships with other major insurers, Bilodeau highlighted that industry collaboration is crucial to not only facilitate more refined coverage but to lower the cost of entry to enhancing resilience.
Emerging public safety risks
An eightfold increase in New York City fire incidents between 2019 and 2023 correlates strongly with the growing popularity of e-mobility devices, according to a joint report by UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE) and Oxford Economics that is based in part on Triple-I data.
Presenting on the report, ULSE Director of Insights Sayon Deb explained how lithium-ion battery fires linked to e-bikes and scooters became a mainstream risk for COVID-era urban environments, due in part to the booming online food and grocery delivery market.
“Nearly $519 million worth of damages were caused in just four years from structural property damage, injuries, and loss of life,” Deb said, pointing out that this figure does not account for “the additional cost of communal fear, in terms of fires happening across the hallway from you, and also the loss in economic opportunities and the community toll that it takes as we respond to these fires.”
Inadequate public safety awareness, paired with the easy availability of uncertified devices, helped fuel the crisis. Beyond overusing or incorrectly charging the devices, e-mobility users often left them in dangerous locations, with “66 percent of those who charge at home charging their devices near their exit,” Deb explained – effectively “blocking your exit from your home in the event of a fire.”
E-mobility regulations vary wildly by state. Though New York City regulations passed in 2023 show progress, ULSE recommends more proactive public outreach, safety standard enforcement, and incident reporting to better track e-mobility risk data.
“The better the data we collect, the better we can understand where, how, and why these battery fires occur, so that we can prevent future fires from happening,” Deb concluded.
Recent efforts to curb federal spending – particularly massive proposed cuts to several major federal science agencies and numerous FEMA grant programs – drew concern from panelists at Triple-I’s Joint Industry Forum in Chicago.
Slated to lose around half of their original budgets, organizations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) provide insurers with much of the research data needed to model climate risks, at no cost to insurers nor the broader public. Abolishing this research, which also enables daily weather and natural disaster forecasting, will increase underwriting costs and those associated with various other industries, including transportation, agriculture, and energy.
“Federal science agencies probably facilitate more economic activity in the country than any other federal agency,” said Frank Nutter, president of the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA). “Fully funding and restaffing those agencies is pretty critical.”
A host of cancelled FEMA mitigation programs have left dozens of catastrophe-prone communities without aid – including projects that were approved before the cuts. Ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, for instance, rescinded approximately $882 million in climate resilience funding — “money we could have spent on mitigation, so we don’t have to spend so much after a disaster,” said Neil Alldredge, president and CEO of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).
Nutter added that “weighing against safety, teacher salaries – all the kinds of things that communities grapple with,” most former grantees lack the resources for “risk reduction or municipal projects and infrastructure” without federal investment.
Population growth in high-risk areas exacerbates the issue, Alldredge said.
“If you look at a map of this country and the population changes from 1980 to today, we have moved the entire population to all the wrong places,” he explained. Building properties capable of withstanding these weather patterns – let alone insuring them – has launched the industry into “a new era of risk.”
While the panelists agreed that opportunities to improve FEMA operations exist, they questioned President Trump’s consideration to disband it entirely by shifting to a state-based relief system.
David Sampson, president and CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), noted that “the very nature of a natural disaster means that it overwhelms the local entity’s ability to respond,” rendering any state-based solution “unworkable.”
“I think we as an industry know where the low-hanging fruit for reforms are,” Sampson continued, because “we interact with FEMA on the ground after disasters.”
State-level legislative momentum
Though the Trump administration’s current plans do not bode well for the future of disaster resilience, insurers celebrated many state legislative wins this year regarding tort reform, notably in Georgia and Louisiana.
“Even at the federal level, there is a growing sense of awareness of the negative impact that an out-of-control tort system is taking on the economy and the American consumer,” Sampson said, highlighting a new bill that would impose taxes on third-party litigation funding.
Florida also successfully resisted challenges to its 2023 and 2024 reforms, which have already helped stabilize the state’s insurance rates and attracted new insurers after a multi-year exodus. Charles Symington, president and CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, pointed out that industry advocacy is crucial to tort reform survival.
“Once you get these beneficial pieces of legislation passed,” he said, “we have to fight the fight in every legislative session.”
Symington then contrasted Florida’s recovering market with California’s enduringly hostile regulatory environment, propelled by the 1988 measure Proposition 103.
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has implemented a Sustainable Insurance Strategy to mitigate the effects of Prop 103 – such as by authorizing insurers to use catastrophe modeling if they agree to offer coverage in wildfire-prone areas – but the strategy has garnered criticism from legislators and consumer groups.
“California doesn’t have the assessment ability like Florida does,” agreed moderator Fred Karlinsky, shareholder and global chair of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. “California is three decades behind.”
As insurers adjust their risk appetite to reflect these constraints, more property owners have been pushed into California’s FAIR Plan – the state’s property insurer of last resort.
“Our members are having to cobble together coverage,” said Joel Wood, president and CEO of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB), who noted that the FAIR plan’s policyholder count has more than doubled since 2020.
Natural disasters like January’s devastating wildfires underscore California’s need for premium rates that adequately reflect the full impact of these risks, which is essential to the continued availability of private insurance in the state.
“When you have the right leadership in place – the governor, the state legislature – and you have the industry being effective in our advocacy, then we can improve these difficult marketplaces,” Symington concluded.
