Over the past year plus we have been doing our best to get the word out about the current and imminent increased costs of insurance and WHY this is happening now. While we will continue to educate folks about what’s going on (with your help), now folks really want to know what we are doing about it.

• March 2021 CAI-CLAC’s Insurance Task Force began to gather data about instances of dramatic premium increase, and what the carriers were communicating with us regarding the reasons why.
• November 2021 CAI-CLAC’s Insurance Task Force convened to discuss the issue, look at possible (mostly long-term) solutions, and begin the process of setting up meetings with the CA Department of Insurance.
o We also met with folks with insurance contacts at the National level, and asked for them to speak to stakeholders at the next ISO convention, and other opportunities, especially about creating a standard definition of “wildfire” in order to help carriers work together to provide adequate coverage, while protecting their ability to remain solvent.
• We identified bills as they were introduced into this session, discussing who we might align ourselves with, and what impact we could have. We tracked those bills, monitoring the changes they went through over the next eight months.
• We met with the CA Department of Insurance on December 21st, discovering that their understanding of how condominiums are insured was incomplete (as corporations with commercial insurance, even though they are residential buildings).
• We designed and executed a Call-to-Action in January of 2022 to make sure the CA Department of Insurance was aware of what a wide-reaching issue this is. (Over 650 letters sent; thank you!!)
• We met again with the CA Department of Insurance on March 7, 2022, where they acknowledged that they saw the need for more efforts focused on the commercial side. They asked for our comments on proposed new regulations, asked for our assistance at disseminating a survey to gather more information about insurance cost impacts on community associations, and asked us for our “wish list” regarding how to truly make the CA FAIR Plan an “insurer of last resort” with regard to condominium associations in California. We discussed the “wildfire” definition and got some pushback, but it showed up in a bill that is still moving its way through the process.
• We gathered REAL insurance stories from impacted folks in California, and our advocate communicated with legislators associated with those areas to be sure that they were aware of what has been developing for those homeowners affected.
• We provided the CA Department of Insurance with our “wish list” for the CA FAIR Plan in March 2022
• We provided comments for the proposed regulations in April of 2022
• We attended a hearing into the CA FAIR Plan and had a featured testimony (as well as other testimony), and also submitted detailed comments and 73 additional letters from Californians who responded to our second Call-to-Action in July 2022.
• We provided additional comments for the proposed regulations from the CA Department of Insurance in July 2022
• Throughout we have written blog posts, emails and social media blurbs to help reach folks and educate them about the ongoing situation, including editing reprints of blog posts for specific business partner websites and writing an article for the California Association of Lawyers

This is what we have been doing, and we will continue. The CA FAIR Plan hearing provided us with some new potential allies, and we are working to be a part of the continued conversation about creating a definition of “wildfire” for deductible (and other) purposes, which would allow some carriers to keep their presence in our state (instead of withdrawing and providing less competition and therefore higher rates).

We appreciate all of the ways you have stepped up, responding to calls-to-action, as well as giving us your personal stories and spreading the word about what is going on. We are going to need to keep acting as a state-wide team in order to really make impact on this issue. We look forward to working with you!

Kimberly Lilley, CIRMS, CMCA, EBP is the Director of Business Development for Berg Insurance Agency and can be reached at kimberly@berginsurance.com.