California’s wildfire and homeowners insurance crisis were the most read stories in Insurance Journal’s Western region this year.
It was a year that saw several major insurers draw back from writing homeowners policies in the state, prompting the state’s insurance regulator to alter California
’s bedrock property/casualty insurance law and offer to fast-track rate hikes. In exchange, insurers agreed to write
in riskier parts of the state and consider returning to offering coverage in the stricken state.
It makes sense that wildfire and affordability stories were among the most read in a year began with historic wildfires in Los Angeles, which cost numerous car
riers billions of dollars. According to Swiss Re, the L.A. wildfires produced the
costliest wildfire event globally with insured losses of $40 billion.
Following were the most popular stories in the region in 2025, most but not all were on California wildfires:
Will California’s FAIR Plan Have Enough Cash for Its Wildfire Claims?
There was some question about whether California’s insurer of last resort – the FAIR Plan – had enough cash
on hand to pay for its share of wildfire claims. As surplus is inadequate and reinsurance has a deductible that excee
ds available cash, an industry assessment is inevitable, according to a Fitch analyst.
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FAIR Plan doesn’t have enough surplus for this level of loss – the biggest California wildfire loss to date, Geral
d Glombicki, senior director at Fitch Ratings, said in an interview with Insurance Journal’s L.S. Howard.
A moth later, the insurance commissioner approved the FAIR Plan request for a $1 billion assessment on admitted market insurers to cover claims from the Los Angeles wildfires.
The FAIR Plan reported it has paid more than $914 million to policyholders, including advance payments, to cover claims related to the Palisades and Eaton fires.
California Wildfires Will Likely Lead to Large Economic and Insured Losses
As the L.A. wildfires blazed in January, readers continued to flock to headlines reporting on the growing losses.
Early on in the month, estimates were that more than 1,000 properties had burned, leading J.P. Morgan to estimate insured losses from the wildfires to approach $1
0 billion, and AccuWeather to deliver a preliminary estimate of more than $50 billion.
The number of properties destroyed topped early fears, and estimates continued to grow.
In the ensuing months, fire lawsuits spread, prompting many to call for sorely needed policy change. And a few of the victims of the wildfires have asked Cal
ifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for the resignation of the state’
s insurance commissioner over reforms he pushed that were designed to help ease the state’s homeowners insurance crisis.
USAA Becomes 3rd Insurer to Report $1B-Plus in Claims So Far for LA Wildfires
By early February, USAA reported it had paid out more than $1 billion for the L.A. wildfires, making it the third insurer to report $1 billion or more in payouts for the destructive blazes that burned thousands of properties.
The company, among the state’s top homeowners insurers, announced at the time that 86% of wildfire claims have received initial payments to date. The San A
ntonio, Texas-based company then reported more than 3,500 claims received, and projected it will ultimately pay out $1.8 billion in losses from the wildfires.
Several big insurers continued to report losses in excess of $1 billion from the fires in ensuing months. Insured and total losses from the January wildfires conti
nue to rise. A report out from at the time had indicated that L.A. wildfire losses could be as high as $164 billion.