California Wildfires Threaten Insurers Already Teetering From Climate Shocks

It’s too soon to know the financial cost of the wildfires burning around Los Angeles. But the toll on California’s troubled insurance market could be enormous.

The fires struck just as California officials have been working to stop insurance companies from fleeing their state.

That exodus, driven by rising losses from wildfires that have grown larger and more frequent, could accelerate because of this week’s fires, experts said.

“The California insurance market has been balanced on a knife edge,” said Nancy Watkins, an insurance expert and principal actuary at Milliman, a consulting firm. As homeowners begin filing claims, insurers that cover large numbers of dwellings in Southern California could see a drain on their financial reserves, forcing them to drop customers, be punished by investors or exit the state.

If insurers keep leaving California, it would drive up insurance rates that are already elevated and make coverage harder to find, said Sridhar Manyem, senior director for industry research and analytics at AM Best, a company that rates the financial strength of insurers.

Wildfires are a natural part of desert ecology.

"Climate change" has nothing to do with preventing fires that are a natural part of the ecology until the flammable biomass accumulates to catastrophic proportions.

Climate did not cause the city of Los Angeles to neglect keeping fire hydrants functional.

It is the big lie and they will push it for their agenda.

Will State Farm raise house insurance in States far removed from the ‘Rat Utopia of Calif.?

Blame governments. The left won’t.