Sacramento – – September 23, 2026 -- Ten California home insurers have requested $571 million in combined rate increases under Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara's climate-model rules while committing to sell only 12,000 new home insurance policies, according to an analysis of Department of Insurance filings by Consumer Watchdog.
Allstate seeks $10 million hike while promising 2,000 policies against 74,000 dropped
Allstate is the latest carrier to request a rate increase under the regulation, filing for $10 million while pledging to write 2,000 new home policies. Since 2023, the insurer has dropped 74,000 policyholders in the state. Consumer Watchdog calculates that Californians would pay roughly $47,000 in rate hikes for every new policy the ten participating insurers have promised. Seven of the state's eight largest insurers have filed under the rule, yet only five committed to any sales increase; the remaining five used the black-box models without pledging additional coverage.
FAIR Plan enrollment more than doubles since regulation launched three years ago
Individual FAIR Plan policyholders climbed from 320,581 to 675,229 by June 2026, according to the group. Combined with roughly 320,000 homeowners now on unregulated surplus lines coverage, approximately one million Californians have moved out of the standard insurance market since the rules took effect.
California homeowner insurers post 26.3% return on net worth in 2024, above national average
National Association of Insurance Commissioners data released in August show California homeowners insurers' direct return on net worth reached 26.3% in 2024, versus 23.9% nationwide. Over the past two decades, California's average return stood at 9.7%, compared with 6.4% for the U.S. overall.
Property-casualty insurers report $31.7 billion in underwriting income for first half of 2026
A report from Verisk and the American Property Casualty Insurance Association put net underwriting income for U.S. property-casualty insurers at $31.7 billion for the first six months of 2026. Nationwide, property insurers reported $68.7 billion in underwriting income and more than $111 billion in investment income in 2025, per an analysis by Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project of NAIC's annual report.
Allstate's second-quarter net income jumps 56% to $3.2 billion
Allstate's adjusted net income return on equity reached 44.2% over the trailing 12 months. Property-liability underwriting income rose nearly 57% to $2 billion, while policies in force grew 3.8% to 215.9 million.
"Half a billion in rate hikes only coaxed insurers into promising a few thousand more policies," said Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, adding that fewer Californians hold standard home insurance now than when the rules began. Consumer Watchdog is calling on lawmakers and the next insurance commissioner to tie wildfire mitigation efforts directly to coverage guarantees for homeowners.