NCOIL (National Conference of Insurance Legislators)
NCOIL is an organization of legislators who serve on state insurance and financial institutions committees around the nation. NCOIL writes Model Laws on insurance matters, works to both preserve the state jurisdiction over insurance as established by the McCarran-Ferguson Act seventy-four years ago and to serve as an educational forum for public policy makers and interested parties. Founded in 1969, NCOIL works to assert the prerogative of legislators in making state policy when it comes to insurance and educate state legislators on current and perennial insurance issues. UP has been an invited speaker at numerous NCOIL conferences over the years.
Advancing risk reduction and retaining access to property insurance, United Policyholder’s Testimony at the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, Charleston, South Carolina, April 2025, Spring Meeting
US CONGRESS
United Policyholders expresses strong support for a set of bills that if enacted will improve future disaster recoveries by simplifying the process through which disaster-impacted U.S. home and business owners can procure financial assistance through the Small Business Association (SBA) and strengthening the agency’s programs.
UP Letter of Strong Support Re SBA Disaster Package
United Policyholders, on behalf of a coalition representing the insurance industry, the real estate industry, home builders, consumer protection organizations, rural county representatives, and environmental organizations, respectfully request that the Committee on Ways and Means move to consider H.R. 1105, the Disaster Resiliency and Coverage Act of 2025, co-led by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA). This bipartisan bill promotes pre-disaster mitigation and resiliency measures, which help reduce property damage and, thus, insurance costs.
Joint Industry Support Letter for HR1105
ALASKA
United Policyholders expresses strong support for SB132, particularly Section 55 which protects Alaska residential property homeowners from the unfair practice of depreciation of labor under insurance policies that do not contain a clear stand-alone labor depreciation endorsement. Section 55 of SB 132 will advance the primary reason people and businesses buy property insurance, which is to have a source of funds to indemnify them after a loss.
Letter of Strong Support for SB 132
United Policyholders to express strong support for HB148, particularly Section 53, which protects Alaska residential property homeowners from the unfair practice of depreciation of labor. Section 53 of HB148 will advance the primary reason people and businesses buy property insurance, which is to have a source of funds to indemnify them after a loss.
Letter of Strong Support for HB 148
CALIFORNIA
United Policyholders strongly supports SB 37, introduced by Senator Umberg. SB 37 will update and strengthen California’s attorney advertising ethics rules and create an additional enforcement mechanism to prohibit misleading advertising. Authorizing citizen lawsuits against unethical attorney advertising is a necessary step to protect consumers, supplement state regulatory efforts, deter misconduct, and prevent legal system abuse.
Letter of Strong Support for SB 37
United Policyholders supports Senate Bill 365, and suggests an amendment that will strengthen the value of the statute. Current law requires the California Department of Insurance to provide an annual report to the Legislature on the effectiveness of the state’s insurance non-renewal moratorium that applies to wildfire-impacted counties following an Emergency Declaration and the Commissioner’s notice. SB 365 amends CA Insurance Code section 675.1(d)(1) to focus the California Department of Insurance’s reporting requirements on zip codes directly protected by the moratorium.
Support if Amended Letter for SB 365
United Policyholders in strong support of SB 429, The California Wildfire Public Model Act, introduced by Senator Cortese. This bill will facilitate the creation of a tool that will serve as a measuring stick/benchmark for the California Department of Insurance Rate Regulation Bureau and other stakeholders to use to evaluate the validity of Catastrophe (“CAT”) Models created by private companies for insurance industry clients. The public CAT Model contemplated by this bill will help expose if and when private CAT Models are overstating risk, understating mitigation, and/or being used to justify excessive rates.
Letter of Strong Support for SB 429
United Policyholders in strong support of SB 495, introduced by Senator Allen. SB 495 will improve on previous efforts to ameliorate one of the biggest pain points for homeowners who lose their homes and all their possessions in a wildfire: The onerous policy condition that compels them to go through the emotionally draining, time-consuming and absurd process of itemizing and valuing every single item they lost in order to collect the personal property insurance benefits owed to them. A primary reason it is so chronically painful and hard to comply with this condition is that it re-traumatizes people who are trying to heal. And where a homeowner has suffered a total loss and all their personal property is gone – there is a strong logical argument that they should be paid their full contents/personal property policy limits without having to comply with this bureaucratic and burdensome requirement.
Letter of Strong Support for SB 495
United Policyholders strongly supports SB 525. This bill ensures that manufactured homeowners who can’t find coverage in the standard insurance marketplace can access protection through the California FAIR Plan.
Letter of Strong Support for SB 525
United Policyholders strongly supports SB 547, The Business Insurance Protection Act. Recognizing that residents of wildfire-impacted regions are particularly vulnerable to being dropped by their insurers and unable to procure replacement coverage outside the CA FAIR Plan in the aftermath of the disaster, the legislature enacted The Wildfire Safety and Recovery Act of 2018 (SB 824).
Letter of Strong Support for SB 547
United Policyholders strongly supports Senate Bill 616, which will establish a Community Hardening
Commission. This bill advances one of our non-profit organization’s most important priorities: Increasing structure hardening and defensible space at the parcel and community level in order to save homes and restore a healthy property insurance marketplace.
Letter of Strong Support for SB 616
United Policyholders strongly supports AB 1, The Insurance and Wildfire Safety Act. California’s Safer From Wildfires framework and the Insurance Institute for Home and Business Safety’s Wildfire Prepared Home standards specify home hardening and defensible space measures that reduce wildfire risk and are to be recognized in insurers’ rating plans, in addition to measures undertaken by fire departments/agencies such as shaded fuel breaks, large scale vegetation management, and actions by utility companies that reduce the risk of power line triggered fires. Over time, new measures are likely to be identified that effectively reduce wildfire risk. This bill will ensure that those new measures get added to what insurance rating plans must recognize.
Letter of Strong Support for AB 1
United Policyholders supports AB 226, the Fair Plan Stability Act, which is currently in the Committee on Rules for assignment, because it will fortify the California FAIR Plan. The FAIR Plan is a critical last resort for California property owners who can’t find a private insurer willing to insure their property due to unprecedented marketplace conditions. Those conditions have led to unprecedented growth in the entity’s policy count. It’s imperative that the FAIR Plan remains a strong, viable option for Californians. This bill provides the entity with the enhanced financial strength it needs to keep pace with the growing number of risks under its umbrella.
Letter of Strong Support for AB 226
United Policyholders strongly supports bill AB 232, the Savings Accounts for Mitigation and Catastrophes Act. By giving consumers a tax incentive to set aside funds specifically for home hardening and covering losses below insurance deductibles, AB 232 provides an essential financial resilience tool for California households. With wildfires, severe convective storms, and landslides becoming more frequent and severe, insurers are raising their rates and adding more limits and exclusions to what they cover. Households are carrying higher deductibles as a strategy to afford rising premiums. Both phenomena are leaving households with gaps in what their insurance will cover.
Letter of Strong Support for AB 232
United Policyholders strongly supports bill AB 290, introduced by Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan, which protects consumers from lapses in fire insurance coverage by requiring the California FAIR Plan Association to accept automatic/recurring online payments from policyholders. An increasing number of California households are turning to the FAIR Plan for insurance protection, and the entity needs to continue enhancing its operations to meet this growth.
Support letter for AB 290
United Policyholders suggests amended language that will earn support for bill AB597. This bill will cap public adjuster fees on disaster claims and as currently drafted, will preclude fees calculated on insurance funds paid prior to retention. UP supports this bill if amended to retain policyholders’ ability to hire professional help on smaller claims.
UP Letter of Support if Amended for AB 597
United Policyholders strongly supports Assemblymember Flora’s bill, AB 637, The Deceptive Disaster Relief Advertising Act. This bill strengthens existing advertising regulations by making it unlawful to disseminate misleading commercial disaster communications unless they include a specified disclosure statement and clearly identify the provider’s name and incorporation status. By extending these protections from the date of an emergency proclamation through 60 days after the declaration, the bill ensures that consumers receive accurate and transparent information when they need it most.
Letter of Strong Support for AB 637
United Policyholders strongly supports AB 888, The California Safe Homes Act. This bill will advance one of our non-profit organization’s most important priorities: Increasing structure hardening and defensible space at the parcel and community level in order to save homes and restore a healthy property insurance marketplace. The grant funding this bill provides will help property owners undertake necessary risk reduction improvements.
Letter of Strong Support for AB 888
United Policyholders strongly supports Assemblymember Ash Kalra’s bill, AB 931. AB 931 will regulate litigation financing companies that provide cash advances to plaintiffs. These advances, while they can be a lifeline for injured people, come with high risks and little oversight, leaving vulnerable plaintiffs exposed to excessive interest rates and confusing contract terms.
Letter of Strong Support for AB 931
United Policyholders supports AB 1236 (Celeste Rodriguez), which will bolster community resilience by establishing and administering a “Climate and Sustainability Insurance and Risk Reduction Program” at the Department of Insurance. Climate insurance pilot projects will explore innovative approaches to insurance that build economic resilience, with particular focus on communities that experience extreme heat, wildfire risk, flooding, or biodiversity loss, and where insurance uptake is low.
Support Letter for AB 1236
IOWA
United Policyholders supports the amendments put forward by the Iowa Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (NEW SECTION 515.116, Standards for loss calculation on property insurance claims) and urges the legislature to not adopt HF 986 in the absence of such amendments. Homeowners expect that insurance funds will restore their property to its full value. This is particularly true for the vast number of consumers who purchase Replacement Cost Value (RCV) coverage, of which matching is an essential part. Policyholders pay premiums with the expectation that their homes will be fully restored—not patched together in ways that are visibly degraded. Currently, Iowa law protects homeowners with replacement cost policies so that they receive payment for repairs that match or result in a reasonable uniform appearance.
Letter Supporting Proposed Amendments for HF 986
NEW YORK
United Policyholders supports legislation that advances comprehensive and beneficial reforms to New York’s property insurance landscape and addresses the widespread challenges policyholders face following catastrophic events and everyday losses.
Letter of Support for A8536 and S8262
WASHINGTON
United Policyholders and other members of the Consumer Representatives of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) urge support for SB 5331—Strengthening Consumer Protections Through Increased Insurer Accountability for Violations of the Insurance Code. This bill gives the Insurance Commissioner the power to order restitution from insurance companies to consumers who have been unfairly treated or overcharged.
Letter of Support for SB 5331