Armand Feliciano, a partner at Public Policy Advocates, and Victoria Roach, president of the California FAIR Plan Association, watch as a member of the public testifies before the California Assembly Insurance Committee on Jan. 28, 2026. Photo: Madeline Shannon \/ The Center Square. <\/p>\n
(The Center Square) \u2013 California lawmakers called Wednesday for the state\u2019s \u201cinsurer of last resort,\u201d the California FAIR Plan, to evolve to insure more properties throughout the state.<\/p>\n
The remarks come after years of the number of FAIR Plan policyholders climbing because of many private insurance companies declining to renew existing policies<\/a> or pulling out of doing business in the Golden State altogether<\/a>. This has pushed more and more homeowners in the state to turn to the California FAIR Plan.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve kind of reached a point where I prefer to call the FAIR Plan \u2018the California safety net\u2019 than the \u2018insurer of last resort,\u2019\u201d said Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, D-City of Industry and the chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, during the panel\u2019s meeting Wednesday. \u201cI feel like the FAIR Plan is no longer the insurer of last resort. When the voluntary insurance market abandons our constituents, the FAIR Plan is there to pick up those policies.\u201d<\/p>\n There is a growing need to make sure the FAIR Plan works for California\u2019s homeowners who can\u2019t get home insurance policies anywhere else, Calderon said.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil the numbers stabilize, preferably decrease, it is our obligation that the FAIR Plan serves its purpose, and possibly expand their purpose,\u201d Calderon added.<\/p>\n According to the Assembly Insurance Committee, the California FAIR Plan was originally created in 1968 to provide property insurance to California\u2019s property owners in urban areas when they couldn\u2019t get insurance from conventional insurance companies. However, after the 1994 Northridge earthquake caused a homeowners\u2019 insurance crisis, the coverage area eligible for insurance through the California FAIR Plan expanded to include the whole state.<\/p>\n The Eaton and Pacific Palisades<\/a> wildfires in January 2025 caused between $28 billion and $53.8 billion in property damage, according to a study<\/a> published by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. and the Southern California Leadership Council.<\/p>\n Homeowners whose homes were damaged or lost in those fires reported average losses of $668,000 on claims that are closed or settled, while those who have open claims reported average net losses of more than $1 million, according to a report<\/a> released this month from the nonprofit Department of Angels.<\/p>\n