05/26/2026
GREAT NEWS. FAIR PLAN RATES ARE INCREASING.
Most people are looking at this and panicking. I actually think it may finally force movement in the right direction.
A lot of people don’t fully understand what the FAIR Plan actually is.
It’s not a traditional insurance company. It’s basically a state-mandated insurance pool funded by the private insurance carriers doing business in California. When wildfire risk and claims explode, those losses eventually circle back onto the participating carriers.
That’s one of the major reasons companies started leaving California in the first place.
Why would a carrier keep writing policies in high-risk areas if they are also being forced to help subsidize an overloaded FAIR Plan pool at artificially low rates?
The FAIR Plan was originally designed to be a temporary safety net. Instead, it became the default insurer for huge portions of California because private carriers couldn’t price risk realistically under the old system.
Now rates are increasing 25-30%, and while nobody likes paying more, it may finally rebalance the market enough to bring competition back.
California regulators are now allowing carriers to use forward-looking wildfire models and reinsurance costs in pricing. In exchange, carriers are expected to start writing more policies again in wildfire-distressed communities.
That matters for places like Buckhorn and Upcountry Amador.
For years, many homeowners were stuck piecing together coverage through FAIR Plan fire policies plus separate “difference in conditions” policies just to get basic protection.
If more carriers return and risk gets spread across multiple companies instead of concentrated into one overloaded pool, the market stabilizes, competition increases, and homeowners may finally start seeing more complete coverage options again.
If you live in a high fire risk area, now is the time to start shopping the voluntary market again instead of assuming FAIR Plan is your only option.
