Association Testifies Before California Department of Insurance

Association President/CEO Roger Isom testified today before the California Department of Insurance (CDI) on the issue of expanding the FAIR Program for insurance.  The FAIR program is the “insurance of last resort” when operations cannot get coverage anywhere else.  In recent years, many facilities have been unable to get insurance coverage for their property or stock insurance.  This primarily a result of the historic wildfires in California chasing insurance carriers away from California, as well as losses in the agricultural industry as well.  It has left many operations with limited coverage pieced together with multiple policies or in some cases without coverage on part or all of their property.  This is unacceptable, and the Association has been working closely with CDI to find solutions to this crippling dilemma.  As a result, State Insurance Commissioner worked with the FAIR Program to increase the commercial limit from $3 million to over $8 million in overall coverage.  In his testimony today, Isom asked the Commissioner to seek increases as high as $20 million.  Obviously, this does would not cover all of the property and stock that many our members may have, it would be a significant increase and would help in the interim until more carriers come back to the California marketplace.  The Association continues to put pressure on CDI and find solutions to help our members.