The FAIR Plan was never meant to be a long-term solution — it’s a backstop. However, in recent years, this “insurer of last resort” has tripled in size, becoming one of the state’s largest insurers. As the FAIR Plan grows, its costs and exposure can ripple through the broader insurance system and contribute to higher premiums statewide. The goal must be to transition as many Californians as possible back into the traditional insurance market.

Priorities:

• Rebuild confidence in the private market:
  Investing in risk reduction efforts, while requiring insurers to underwrite those who fire harden in high-risk areas and rewarding those who reenter the California market. California needs a suite of policies that together lower climate-related risks, empower communities to adapt to new climate realities, facilitate investments to prevent disasters, allow insurers to more accurately calculate risk, and require them to participate in the stable market enabled by these policies. So much of this will come down to policies that push for fire resilient communities - from construction materials, community fire safe practices, and more effective vegetation management to stronger and more targeted firefighting infrastructure.
  
  

• Support FAIR Plan solvency while reforming it:
  Use the Plan’s new IBank bonding authority to ensure claims can be paid promptly, while improving governance.
  
  

• Reward mitigation:
  Prioritize FAIR Plan policyholders who meet Safer from Wildfires standards for transition into private coverage—aligning risk reduction with market stability. In cooperation with CAL FIRE and the academic community, assess areas of the state with high concentrations of FAIR Plan policies and develop community-scale roadmaps that show the path back to insurability through systemic risk reduction.
  
  

• Long-term risk reduction:
  Pair insurance reform with local planning tools—retrofits, defensible space, ignition-source removal, and managed retreat where appropriate—to shrink the high-risk pool and protect long-term insurability. I will coordinate with local governments to take the highest risk open spaces out of development, protecting future residents from dangerous and uninsurable conditions.
  
  

• Rebuild smarter:
  Support resilient redevelopment in post-disaster areas like the Palisades and Altadena as models for safer, more fire resilient, more insurable communities of the future.