California Fair Plan says $1 billion assessment, $2.9 billion paid so far after Jan. 7 wildfires; policy count and exposure surge

The California Fair Plan told the Assembly Insurance Committee on Oct. 29, 2025, that it requested a $1 billion assessment on its member insurers after the Jan. 7 wildfires and has paid about $2.9 billion in claims to date, with an estimated $4 billion in total losses once claims are complete.

Victoria Roach, president of the California Fair Plan, said the plan has grown rapidly: "We are now at about $599,000,000,000. We're closing in on $600,000,000,000 as of March 31," referring to insured exposure, and that policy count has climbed to roughly 575,000 policies. Armand Feliciano, speaking for the FAIR Plan, described the board and accounting-committee process that led to the assessment and said the board "unanimously agreed we needed to assess. They agreed a billion dollars was the right number."

The committee was told why the Fair Plan — created by the Legislature in 1968 as an insurer of last resort — has become a first stop for many Californians. Roach said the voluntary (admitted) market and surplus lines carriers are not offering sufficient capacity across the state, so consumers are "coming to us first" for reasons of price and availability. "Sometimes they're coming to us because of price, and sometimes they're coming to us more often because they just can't get insurance anywhere else," she said.

Why it matters: the Fair Plan is a residual market intended as a temporary safety net until…