State Farm to offer renewals to policyholders affected by L.A. fires - Los Angeles Times  January 16th 2025

State Farm to offer renewals to policyholders affected by L.A. fires - Los Angeles Times

State Farm said Wednesday that it will offer renewals to residential policyholders affected by the Los Angeles County fires that it had previously planned to drop.

The decision applies to policies held by homeowners, owners of rental dwellings and residential community associations, which include condominium associations.

The charred remains of 83-year-old Erliene Kelley's home on Tonia Avenue in Altadena, at left, burned by the Eaton Fire, on Friday, January 10, 2025. It has been 48 hours since her granddaughter Briana Navarro has heard from her.

First, they lost their home insurance. Then, L.A. fires consumed their homes

The figure includes roughly 70%, or 1,100, of the 1,626 residential policies still in place in Pacific Palisades’ primary 90272 ZIP Code — and thousands more in the neighborhood and elsewhere in the county. The offer does not apply to policies that had already lapsed when the fire started on Jan. 7.

The Department of Insurance said that among the thousands of policies State Farm had targeted for nonrenewal, more than 7,600 were in the Palisades fire zone. There were also 525 more in San Gabriel Valley’s Eaton fire and additional policyholders elsewhere.

It’s unclear how many of those policies had already lapsed when the fires began.

“We are in the business of helping people recover, and that’s exactly what we’re doing right now to those impacted by the fires. It’s just such a horrible tragedy,” said Jon Farney, chief executive of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., parent of State Farm General, its California subsidiary.

Farney made his remarks in an extended interview Tuesday before the insurer told The Times about the policy change

California lawmakers propose measures to address wildfire insurance challenges

California lawmakers are advancing legislation to enhance the California FAIR Plan's claims-paying capacity and expedite the insurance claims process for homeowners amid the Los Angeles wildfires.

The proposed FAIR Plan Stabilization Act would authorize the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to issue catastrophe bonds to support the FAIR Plan during liquidity shortfalls, according to a report from AM Best.

“The loss in Southern California is inconceivable,” said Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, chair of the insurance committee and co-author of the legislation. “AB 226 will alleviate some of the uncertainty that FAIR Plan policyholders may encounter as a result of this tragedy.”

Los Angeles Needs to Fireproof Communities, Not Just Houses | WIRED

As houses continue to burn in Los Angeles, officials have already started talking about rebuilding the city. “We’re going to rebuild this remarkable community and we’re going to come back,” California governor Gavin Newsom said in a call with President Biden on January 10.

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass added her own call for action. “We’re going to recover, and we’re going to rebuild and we’re going to rebuild better.”

The challenge facing the city is huge. An estimated 12,000 structures have been destroyed in the Palisades and Eaton fires, neither of which has been contained. At least 25 people have been killed by the blazes, which are on track to be the costliest wildfires in US history. But as the risk of devastating wildfires increases with climate change, the calls to rebuild Los Angeles raise a series of tricky questions: How and where to rebuild—and whether to rebuild at all.

In November 2018, the Camp Fire razed most of the northern Californian town of Paradise to the ground and killed 85 people. The population of Paradise is now just a third of its pre-fire levels, but the town is rebuilding in a way that residents hope will make future wildfires less devastating.

“We’ve gone from fire suppression to that not even being possible once there’s an ignition,” says Dan Efseaff, who started working for Paradise Recreation and Park District about a year before the Camp Fire.

One way to lessen the spread and intensity of fires is to reduce the amount of flammable vegetation—often called “fuel”—through prescribed burns, cutting back shrubs, and allowing animals to graze. Forest trails can also give authorities access for fuel management, provide a break in vegetation that slows fires down and, as was the case in the Camp Fire, provide evacuation routes in an emergency.

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The Los Angeles Wildfires: An Economic Disaster, Management Failure, and Insurance Industry Turmoil - Insurtech Israel News

How Could the InsurTech Industry Have Minimized the Damages of the Los Angeles Wildfires?

The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles are estimated to have caused immense economic damage, with assessments ranging from $10 billion to $150 billion. AccuWeather, part of the CoreLogic group, estimates the damage closer to the higher end of the range. These estimates take into account the fact that the fires are still active in less than 25% of the area they have covered, making precise calculations difficult.

In addition to the direct damage to property, there are significant secondary damages, such as the effects of smoke on public health. Experts warn it will take years to assess the impact on respiratory diseases and other chronic illnesses.

The overlap of residential and business areas only exacerbates the situation. Many businesses were directly affected by the fires, leading to significant revenue losses and impacts on the local economy. The evaluation of these damages also raises questions about crisis management and how authorities prepared for such an event.

An article by Kobi Bendelak, CEO of InsurTech Israel

California Fires Expected to Speed Digital Payouts for Insurance

The billions of dollars in damages — and the incalculable emotional toll — of wildfires raging through the Los Angeles area will reverberate for years.

The wildfires have leveled neighborhoods, schools and stores, and the insured losses are estimated to top more than $20 billion, with an additional $60 billion in economic losses. The latest natural disaster represents another challenge to the state, where insurance companies have been boosting their rates or pulling out of the market entirely.

As Ian Drysdale, CEO of One Inc told Karen Webster, “People are going to have to think through how insurance works, where they want to live and how they want to live — because the cost of living in certain areas is continuing to increase.”

FULL INTERVIEW/VIDEO

Includes Video Interview with Ian Drysdale, CEO, ONE Inc.

NICB Warns California Residents About Fraudulent Contractors Following Catastrophic Wildfires

Following the devastating wildfires in Southern California, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), the nation's leading non-profit association dedicated to preventing insurance fraud and crime, urges residents and business owners to know the signs of fraudulent contractors and to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves, their property, and their loved ones.

"Wildfires pose a serious threat to the livelihoods of hardworking families and business owners," said David J. Glawe, President and CEO of the National Insurance Crime Bureau. "After these catastrophic events, fraudulent contractors pour into hard-hit communities to take advantage of residents who have already lost everything. Residents need to be vigilant and know the signs of a fraudster, so they can avoid being victimized a second time."

NICB agents have been deployed to the region to work with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, as well as insurance companies, to help prevent fraud from occurring and to utilize NICB data and intelligence resources to investigate all reported cases of fraud. Additionally, NICB is working with state and federal government agencies and insurance industry trade associations on anti-fraud efforts.