The FAIR Plan might be in Marin for Quite a While

I work with over 50 home insurers in California and many of them here in Marin County. This year two of them are non renewing whole stacks of home insurance policies in our lovely county. I am not alone.

Non renewals are going out from Farmers, Allstate and others, rumor has it. Although the California Department of Insurance expects non renewals to go down this year, I really doubt it functionally will. I see no evidence that any property insurers in California are getting back into the home insurance market.

To my knowledge there is only one property insurer that is still taking in many of the homes in Marin County: State Farm. I do not work with them - you would have to inquire directly with them. But if they will not take your home, there are other admitted insurers, but their underwriting guidelines are getting more and more strict.

Many clients are ending up with the insurer of last resort in this great state: the California FAIR plan. When this whole process started, I thought that the FAIR plan would only be a temporary solution - now, I am not so certain.

More and more I am thinking that until significant reforms happen in this state that the California FAIR plan may be here to stay. To that end - here are some practical tips on getting insured with FAIR:

• Although consumers can technically purchase a FAIR plan directly, you really ought to use an agent.
• The FAIR plan has a maximum TIV of $3.0MM, Prepare accordingly
• Make sure you exhaust the other admitted options before engaging with FAIR
• Do not JUSt get the FAIR plan, at the minimum get a CPL or DIC alongside of it.
• Speaking of DICs [the companion policy] the pricing on these vary exceptionally from insurer to insurer - so shop around
• Because of FAIR pricing you really do need to consider which insurance coverages you truly do need.
• Please speak with a few agents and get a feel for those that have experience in this arena

There you have seven practical tips for FAIR insurance consumption. Please do not make any insurance decisions based solely off of this insurance post. Please speak with a licensed agent and ask LOTs of questions and make sure you understand what you are doing when getting property insurance in and around Marin County.

Scott W Johnson is an independent broker agent based in Marin County and is the owner of Marindependent Insurance Services LLC and can be contacted here.