Fire Victim Trust to Begin Making First Pro Rata Payments to Fire Victims
Fire Victim Trust to Begin Making First Pro Rata Payments to Fire Victims

March 12, 2021, San Francisco – On Monday, March 15, the Fire Victim Trust (FVT) will begin distributing the first round of pro rata payments toward satisfying the claims of individuals and families who suffered losses in the 2015 Butte Fire, 2017 North Bay Fires…
Commissioner Lara proposes new transparency rules to help consumers better prepare for wildfires
Commissioner Lara proposes new transparency rules to help consumers better prepare for wildfires

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – After hearing from many Californians about their frustration and confusion over how insurance companies rate properties for wildfire risk, on Tuesday State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara proposed new rules to give homeowners and businesses open access to their properties’ wildfire risk…
California seeks to establish new fire-safe standards for homes, insurers
California seeks to establish new fire-safe standards for homes, insurers

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Monday announced an effort to establish home-hardening standards that could protect participating homeowners from canceled policies and soaring rates while providing a mechanism to encourage fire-safe retrofits that could save lives and property. The effort, which will begin this month with…
Few California court wins for pandemic business-interruption claims
Few California court wins for pandemic business-interruption claims

As North Coast businesses grapple with insurance claims from the 2020 wildfires on top of ongoing issues with coverage for the coronavirus lockdowns of a number of economic activities, a major advocate for policyholders said those types of losses differ but they’re connected by promises…
Insurance questions following Colorado’s devastating wildfires? There’s a nonprofit that can help
Insurance questions following Colorado’s devastating wildfires? There’s a nonprofit that can help

The nonprofit group United Policyholders is helping fire-affected residents in Grand, Boulder and Larimer counties navigate insurance claims to ensure they get the most out of their policies. “We will walk them through their policy and teach them how to work with their insurance company…
Gov. Newsom signs insurance bill providing quicker payments for wildfire losses
Gov. Newsom signs insurance bill providing quicker payments for wildfire losses

Wildfire victims who lose their home and possessions will be able to recoup money for their expenses faster, thanks to legislation that makes property insurance benefits easier to collect. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 872 into law Thursday, providing a suite of insurance protections…
California Insurance Commissioner Urges Insurance Companies to Cover Wildfire Property Losses Without Requiring a Home Inventory
California Insurance Commissioner Urges Insurance Companies to Cover Wildfire Property Losses Without Requiring a Home Inventory

October 3, 2020 – SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In response to California’s latest destructive fires, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is requesting that insurance companies help wildfire survivors who are overwhelmed with the task of navigating the claims process by providing up to 100 percent of personal…
Sonoma County fire survivors embrace roles as guides and counselors to latest wave of disaster victims
Sonoma County fire survivors embrace roles as guides and counselors to latest wave of disaster victims

Vita Iskander had no intention of taking a leadership role when she walked into Santa Rosa’s Unitarian Universalist church on Oct. 25, 2017. Seventeen days earlier, her home in Hidden Valley Estates had burned in the Tubbs fire. Still in something of a daze, she…
It’s fire season. Here are three ways to prepare financially
It’s fire season. Here are three ways to prepare financially

Good morning. I’m Rachel Schnalzer, the L.A. Times Business section’s audience engagement editor, back with our weekly newsletter. While the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic are the usual focus of the newsletter, I’m pivoting this week to discuss another crisis facing Californians: the wildfires…
Most PG&E Fire Victims Won’t Be Able to Appeal Claim Decisions in Court … With Some Exceptions
Most PG&E Fire Victims Won’t Be Able to Appeal Claim Decisions in Court … With Some Exceptions

When the trustee overseeing the compensation fund for PG&E fire victims determines the values of some 80,000 claims, the vast majority of claimants won’t have the opportunity to appeal the decision in court. But the judge overseeing the utility’s bankruptcy case has granted exceptions to…
Shannen Doherty reveals terminal cancer amid wildfire insurance battle
Shannen Doherty reveals terminal cancer amid wildfire insurance battle

The actor Shannen Doherty has revealed her battle with terminal breast cancer in an interview about her ongoing fight with State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, to receive compensation for her wildfire-damaged home. Doherty’s Malibu home was damaged by smoke from the Woolsey fire in…
As wildfires drive insurance premiums up, will homeowners be able to keep up?
As wildfires drive insurance premiums up, will homeowners be able to keep up?

At first, Lucy Reynolds was unnerved by the non-renewal notice from the insurance company two years ago. Mortgaged homes must have coverage so Reynolds and her husband needed to find a replacement, quick. She was turned down by her neighbor’s carrier and an insurance agent…
Trick or treat…what’s in yours?
Trick or treat…what’s in yours?

Make sure your policy has more treats than tricks! The only thing scarier than how devastating the last year has been with wildfires, lava, flooding and hurricanes is language we’ve been finding buried in some of the insurance policies that impacted people have been showing…
Wildfire Mitigation & Insurance Project
Wildfire Mitigation & Insurance Project

If you take action to make your home less likely to be seriously damaged or destroyed in a wildfire, your insurance company should reward you with a discount on your premium … or at the very least keep you as a customer and not drop…
Now that’s coverage — Insurers sent private fire crews to homes threatened by the Thomas Fire
Now that’s coverage — Insurers sent private fire crews to homes threatened by the Thomas Fire

Debra Salem-Drake was packing to evacuate as a wildfire moved within a half-mile of her Ventura home when she got a surprising call. Her insurance company was offering to come spray her home with fire-blocking gel…for free. It was Dec. 5, the second day of…
Insurance Companies Require Written Inventory From Fire Victims’ Burned Homes
Insurance Companies Require Written Inventory From Fire Victims’ Burned Homes

When the overnight firestorm raged through Santa Rosa in October, nothing in the three-bedroom house at 1445 Starview Court survived. “Nothing,” said homeowner Holly Webb. “It’s all gone.” And so, Webb was stunned when State Farm told her that getting the full $237,000 listed on…
Homeowners Fear Losing Insurance in Midst of California Fires
Homeowners Fear Losing Insurance in Midst of California Fires

California homeowners and regulators have a new fear about wildfires ravaging the state: that insurers will drop coverage. Massive, out-of-season fires in northern and southern California are causing billions of dollars in claims and challenging expectations of when and where to expect blazes. State law…
Hundreds of fire victims finding themselves vastly underinsured
Hundreds of fire victims finding themselves vastly underinsured

Hundreds of Sonoma County residents who lost their homes in the October wildfires say they are finding themselves underinsured and many are pressing their cases with their homeowners’ insurance carriers. Many displaced homeowners are discovering that they will likely have to pay tens to hundreds…