Letter from Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara

Expanding coverage for those who need it most: My continued promise to Californians

Dear colleagues, community partners, and leaders:

As Insurance Commissioner, my continued promise is to protect Californians by modernizing a long-neglected insurance system, improving community resilience, closing coverage gaps, and providing strong, transparent oversight so that our insurance market works fairly and effectively in the face of climate change and economic uncertainty.

California homeowners, nonprofits, and businesses need insurance that meets their specific needs — and on their own terms.

But for the past 30 years, our market has lurched from crisis to crisis, with companies raising rates while dropping policies under outdated regulations that haven’t withstood the test of time, or the growing threat of climate change.

Through the hard work of my Department of Insurance staff and more than a year of public hearings, we transitioned California’s insurance market from crisis response to a sustainable and equitable future. We launched and began implementing my Sustainable Insurance Strategy, secured immediate commitments from several insurers — and growing — to stabilize coverage, and elevated California’s voice nationally and internationally on issues of affordability and availability amid climate change and financial uncertainty.

Judge me by the results: Insurance companies are committing to staying and growing in our state for the first time in 30 years. Some of the largest companies who had limited policies after major wildfires are once again expanding. And I will make sure they meet their commitments.

We are doing this while responding to the Los Angeles wildfire disaster, the most destructive in our state’s history.

Like many issues, recovery is multi-faceted and the responsibility of several interlocking and overlapping systems, some of which are decades old. We are focused on doing our part, with the benefit of lessons learned from Department actions in more than 120 catastrophic wildfires over the past 7 years. The data shows that the insurance payouts are coming faster than in previous fires because of new laws and my actions.

But to be successful, communities need a coordinated approach between federal, state, and local governments, philanthropy and builders, so people can be safer than before while maximizing every insurance dollar. Last year I led the effort with six sponsored bills signed into law. We need Congress to pass federal legislation bringing home more recovery dollars and supporting state mitigation programs like the California Safe Homes Act, which will put money in people’s hands so they can access insurance discounts and keep their coverage. And we need the Legislature to continue to act to fix problems exposed by the L.A. wildfires with strong standards on smoke remediation and improvements to disaster claims handling.

I will continue advocating for climate resilience and consumer protection at the national and international level, ensuring California’s innovations both inform and are informed by global standards and multistate collaboration.

2026 will be a critical year. I will be proposing new consumer protections so claims are paid fairly and quickly. I will be pursuing standards for smoke remediation and damage based in health and science. I will seek more funds to support the rebuilding in Los Angeles while preventing the destruction of more communities from wildfire, flood, and sea level rise.

And once again I will be looking to the Governor, Legislature, community partners, insurers, and regulators from across the nation and around the globe to join me in partnership keeping coverage accessible and credible as climate and financial uncertainties evolve.

RICARDO LARA
California Insurance Commissioner

• Download Letter from Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara as a PDF