Farmers Insurance announced that it will increase the number of homeowner policies it will write for new California customers from 7,000 to 9,5000. The insurance company is the second largest home insurance provider in the state, and is one of the few major insurers to still be accepting new customers in California. This policy expansion comes amidst reform proposals issued by California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. The new reforms would allow insurance companies to use wildfire catastrophe models to set rates and charge their customers reinsurance, all in an effort to incentivize insurers to open up more business in the disaster prone state.
Today on AirTalk, we discuss these coming changes and what it will mean for California home insurance moving forward. Joining us are Megan Fan Munce (opens in new tab), reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle covering CA home insurance, David Russell (opens in new tab), professor of insurance and finance and director for the center for risk management and insurance at CSU, Northridge, and Carmen Balber (opens in new tab), executive director of Consumer Watchdog.
Click the link below to listen.
