Today is a pivotal day for California’s home insurance crisis, especially if your insurance company dropped you. Companies can now start submitting new catastrophe computer models to the state.
It’s the first-mile marker in a race that will test a deal the state recently cut with home insurance companies. California’s betting that letting companies use computer models for the first time to gauge risk will convince them to stop dropping home policies and start selling new ones.
Today, an analytics company called Verisk -- which works with major insurance companies behind the scenes -- was the first to cross an interim finish line. The state confirms Verisk was the first to submit a model for state review.
“Today is an important day because we submitted a model for review, that will allow -- we hope-- for better quantification of wildfire risk to the California insurance market,” said Rob Newbold, president of Extreme Event Solutions at Verisk, in an interview with NBC Bay Area Responds on Thursday.
In a recent interview with us, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara conceded that the new catastrophe models aid insurance availability, not necessarily affordability. Carriers might aim to push prices higher. But Lara says the state will review those private models and is even creating a public model for comparison.
Verisk expects the whole approval process for their model to take about four months. We’ll keep an eye on that process. We’re committed to letting you know what we find down this long road.
You can let us know what you’re seeing in this insurance crisis too.
Continue to share your insurance stories with us here.
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