01/09/2025
Hey everyone, I saw some posts and I had a friend reach out to me as well about homeowners insurance carriers cancelling policies before devastating events or specifically, the California wildfires. There seems to be a misunderstanding in that info, so here I am, the Insurance Guru, writing a mini book.
Some insurance carriers had to non-renew policies in certain states/areas due to losses, capacity and financial strength. They had to do this because some were going bankrupt, others because they were no longer profitable and other specific names, because they were losing their "financial strength/stability rating" in early 2024 for a short time. One of the largest names in the business lost their financial rating for a short period of time. In my career, that's mind blowing.
Carrier's financial rating, aka AM Best or Demotech rating for example, is what each insurer is designated to determine it's ability to pay claims made by the amount of policy holders it has; The surplus of financial backing.
It's guidelines they have to meet to be accepted by the housing industry. Mortgage companies usually will not accept insurance carriers who are not A rated or higher, very few allow B that I know of.
Carriers cannot just wake up and decide they want to cancel insurance before an event. There are laws in place with each state that protect you from that.
In Texas, they cannot cancel mid-term (after the post binding period) unless it's for non-payment. You can only be dropped at renewal and even then you're given 30 days advance notice, by mail. Even if you're paperless, cancellation notices in Texas have to also go out by mail. I would be open to say California has similar protocols in place.
While this may seem unfair to the average consumer, there is so much more to the puzzle, including the re-insurance/financial backings of larger entities behind the scenes of every insurer, and for today's situation, "insurance co ___" had to non-renew policies in CA because they temporarily lost their financial rating and the next step after that, is insolvency. They didn't do it the day before, or during, they did it months in advance. Wildfire areas, sure? This is no different than what is happening in Texas in hail/hurricane prone areas with several carriers going bankrupt in 2023, many others having to non-renew in Texas all together to protect from that and then what carriers are left, having to take on rate increases and deductible increases as safeguards.
Don't always believe your Tik Tok Videos, make sure you're receiving real news, not fake.
Insurance lesson of the day.
Love it or Hate it, I don't make the rules, but it's what I do and I'm here to educate and help! π
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