Insurance commissioner details rollout of Sustainable Insurance Strategy, opens investigations and task force

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara told the California State Assembly Insurance Committee that his department has moved into the implementation phase of its Sustainable Insurance Strategy and has begun a series of regulatory and investigative actions intended to increase insurance availability and accountability across wildfire-impacted areas of the state.

Lara, testifying before the committee, said the Department of Insurance has approved new processes and tools to speed rate filings and to reward mitigation, announced a formal market-conduct examination of State Farm’s handling of wildfire claims, formed a smoke-claims remediation task force and is revising the intervener compensation process established under Proposition 103.

The new procedures are intended to address both availability and affordability, Lara said. “You can’t afford what doesn’t exist,” he said, arguing that rebuilding a sustainable market requires insurers to return to writing policies in wildfire-distressed areas and for regulators to evaluate filings more quickly. He told the committee the department has reduced average homeowner rate‑filing review time from 281 days to 71 days and has posted related data on the department website.

Why it matters: California’s homeowners and commercial insurance market has contracted in many high‑risk areas after recent wildfires, producing a heavy reliance on the FAIR Plan as the insurer of last resort. Lara and industry and trade witnesses told the committee that increasing insurer participation, improving the FAIR Plan’s solvency and clarifying standards for smoke remediation are necessary steps…