Look Away - The California Insurance Market will be Just fine, Politicians to the Rescue

[marindependent]

And Insurance Bus Magazine, has the same take on it that I do:
California’s insurance strategy ‘long on hope, short on details’
Brokers and agents air concerns and questions over plans to stabilize the market

"without more details, it was impossible to know whether the announced measures will lead to a competitive admitted market for property risks."

"governor’s emergency declaration, was long on hope and short on specifics,” Young said."

"One of the key actions is requiring insurers to write a minimum of 85% of their California market share in high wildfire risk areas."

"strategy addresses the challenges brought by catastrophes such as storms and wildfires, it doesn’t address other factors such as inflation."

"“Where we have a concern, though, is with a threshold that the commissioner has announced. Eighty-five per cent (85%) is going to be an extraordinarily high threshold, and one that many companies simply can’t meet.”"

"“The devil is in the details,” "

"“How is that going to be defined? Is it by county, such as Los Angeles County or Marin County, or is it going to be very specific to historical fire areas?” he said. “I think that’s one factor that insurance companies are going to be interested in knowing."

I do not frankly feel like we know much about the state of the California Property Insurance market at this time.

 

[Markthebroker]

Everything is going to be fine, we still have the FAIR Plan...
Everything is going to be fine, we still have the FAIR Plan...
Everything is going to be fine, we still have the FAIR Plan...

 

[marindependent]

I have it on good authority that another smaller personal lines carrier appears to now be leaving California. Ill withhold the name until I get a better written confirmation. But this is AFTER the "deal" that they theoretically have come up with.

 

[Markthebroker]

I have it on good authority that another smaller personal lines carrier appears to now be leaving California. Ill withhold the name until I get a better written confirmation. But this is AFTER the "deal" that they theoretically have come up with.

No kidding. Can you PM me if I promise to keep it to myself?

 

[Allen Trent]

No kidding. Can you PM me if I promise to keep it to myself?

My sources say it is regional insurer FAIR that is leaving CA to find better regulatory environments to operate in.

 

[marindependent]

No kidding. Can you PM me if I promise to keep it to myself?

Here it is officially stated: "CSE Insurance Group ceased selling policies on Monday and will begin dropping its current policies when they come up for renewal, according to two company communications that sources in the industry shared with The Standard."
...
"But unlike in other cases where insurers have pulled out of the state, CSE said it wants to organize “soft-landings” for its policyholders with another entity called CSE Diversified Insurance Services."
...
"He described CSE as a “small company representing less than .4% of California’s market.”
...
Lara announced plans for a new covenant between the state and the insurance industry: California would allow insurers to use forward-looking modeling in their rate calculations and streamline the approval process in return for insurers covering more homes in areas with high wildfire risk. The goal was to lure insurance companies back to the state.
...
"Lara’s announcement “literally was giving insurance carriers a path forward to becoming profitable again,” said Karl Susman, president of the Susman Insurance Agency in Los Angeles and a commentator on insurance issues. “For a carrier to be pulling out after that announcement tells you they just do not think there’s a path for them to solvency.”

Cough Cough.... Ricardo - are you reading these headlines?

 

[marindependent]

and...."the state Department of Insurance said that the move by CSE Insurance Group... is not an indication that officials’ recently announced efforts to keep the number of insurance options are failing." No, not at all.

Its just the "6th Carrier Ending California Coverage" and countless others on various versions of moratoriums - is anyone counting that?

Source.

 

[DHK]

 

[Markthebroker]

and...."the state Department of Insurance said that the move by CSE Insurance Group... is not an indication that officials’ recently announced efforts to keep the number of insurance options are failing." No, not at all.

No, of course not.

Clearly the CA DOI is doing a great job.

 

[marindependent]

and when it hits L.A. and even Vanity Fair is reporting on it - you know the problem has gone [cough cough] mainstream...

Nobody's Buying the Fanciest LA Real Estate

"“There is real, serious uncertainty all around, and these issues are major, major, major,” says Jenna Cooper, a real estate agent with Compass whose clients are writers, actors, talent agents, and creatives of all sorts (myself included), and who is one of the few agents with actual exquisite taste. “The strike is really a problem. The mansion tax is a real issue. The insurance situation is chaos...."

Perhaps our esteemed Commissioner can read these tea leaves.