Wildfire Risk Information Reporting
(A Fire and Wildfire Exposure Risk Manual - Updated July 7, 2025)
Introduction
Senate Bill 824 (Chapter 616, Statutes of 2018) was authored by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara when he was serving as a state Senator, and signed by then-Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in 2018. Part of SB 824 amended California Insurance Code section 929 to address the lack of historical loss data for homeowners’ insurance, especially in high to very high wildfire risk areas.
Section 929 requires all admitted insurers with California direct written premiums of $10 million or more to submit a biennial report to the Insurance Commissioner with its residential property experience data for the previous two years for policies written in California.
Insurers are required to include the following information by individual policy in their reports:
- Fire- or wildfire-incurred losses, if any, reported by property coverage category and the date of the loss.
- The public protection class or its equivalent, if utilized by the insurer.
- The specific numerical or other fire risk score and source of fire risk score, if applicable.
- Premium.
- ZIP Code.
The California Department of Insurance reserves the right to limit its use by insurers to support future rate change requests until additional data is made available. This data may not be used by an insurer in a rate change request if the California Department of Insurance determines that it will cause the requested rates to be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory under Proposition 103.
SB 824 Wildfire Risk Information
- Format of the Report and Methodology
- Residential Property Coverage Amounts, Wildfire Risk, and Losses
Acknowledgements
This report and all the accompanying exhibits were prepared under the direction of Luciano Gobbo, Chief in the California Department of Insurance’s Data Analytics and Reporting Division. All the data analysis and computations were done by Micah Mumper, Ph.D., Research Data Specialist II, a member of the Data Analytics and Reporting Division. He received assistance from Adam Gammell, Division Chief, Lynne Wehmueller, Chief Actuary, and Edward Cimini, Senior Casualty Actuary, all members of the Rate Regulation Branch.
Contact for Further Information
For questions regarding the report, or the methodology used in the collection of the data, please contact Luciano Gobbo at Luciano.Gobbo@insurance.ca.gov.
