Wildfires and Insurance: Recovery of Impacted Communities Recap

On Tuesday, October 30, 2018 the California Senate Insurance Committee and Assembly Insurance Committee held an informational hearing, “Wildfires and Insurance: Recovery of Impacted Communities” at Napa Valley College. The hearing focused on rebuilding after the 2017 wildfires that destroyed over 6,000 homes in the North Bay region of California and whether insurance coverage is meeting the needs of the impacted households.

UP Executive Director Amy Bach spoke on the panel about potential solutions to solve the post-wildfire underinsurance crisis. Amy shared UP’s survey results that consistently confirm an average of 2/3 of households that lose homes in wildfires find themselves grossly underinsured and helped educate California lawmakers on underinsurance.

UP has been working for decades to solve this problem.  We offer many resources to help policyholders take steps to avoid underinsurance before a loss and to solve this problem after a loss.

One of the matters discussed at the hearing was the insurance-related measures enacted in 2018 in response to the 2017 wildfires. Attached to this blogpost are the hearing documents, a summary of the bills passed this past legislative session, and a document including the full text of newly enacted legislation related to the topics covered at the hearing.