CALIFORNIA – One year ago, wildfires tore through Los Angeles County, destroying thousands of homes and upending entire communities. Today, as families mark this anniversary, many are still living in limbo, unable to rebuild and move forward. Impacted homeowners and families are still fighting with their insurance companies for the money they’re owed and still trying to piece their lives back together while insurers drag their feet and state regulators look the other way.
The insurance industry has turned this disaster into a profit opportunity, and the state insurance commissioner and regulators have let them get away with it. Insurers are denying smoke-damage claims and forcing families back into contaminated homes. They’re hiring their own vendors to declare these homes “safe” using manipulated thresholds. They’ve made home insurance significantly more expensive, abandoned policyholders in disaster-prone areas, and forced families into expensive last-resort coverage or left them with no coverage at all. And they did all this while posting record profits of nearly $167 billion in 2024, a staggering 91% increase from 2023.
State regulators should be investigating these claim denials, cracking down on delay tactics, protecting consumers from being pushed into toxic homes, and holding insurers accountable for abandoning communities in their time of greatest need. Instead, they’ve stood by and watched as the industry exploits a tragedy.
“A year later, families are still fighting their insurance companies for what they are owed while insurers rake in record profits. State insurance commissioners have the power to stop this – to investigate bogus claim denials, to ban the practice of forcing families into toxic homes, to hold these companies accountable. But they’re not doing it. They’re letting the insurance industry turn a climate disaster into a business opportunity, and Californians are paying the price,” said Unlocking America’s Future spokesperson Kyle Herrig.
Last month, Unlocking America’s Future released a report titled “California’s Insurance Crisis: How Homeowners Pay More For Less While Insurers Profit.” The report reveals how major insurance companies in California have stopped writing many new policies and non-renewed more than 250,000 existing policies from 2020 to 2023 while claiming financial distress, even as the industry reports $164 billion in investment income. The evidence is clear: state regulators need to step up and do their jobs before more families are left behind.
See coverage below:
NPR: California fire victims say slow insurance payouts have stalled efforts to rebuild
LA County said it started investigating State Farm after getting complaints. The company delayed, underpaid and denied legitimate insurance claims. State Farm faces similar allegations in Oklahoma, where the state’s Republican attorney general has accused the company of running a scheme to deny and minimize payments for roof damage from hail and storms
Frustration with insurance companies is growing nationwide after homeowners have faced years of rising premiums, in part because climate change is fueling more extreme weather that damages and destroys property.
Inside Climate News: A Year After the LA Fires, Recovery Is Lagging, But Bright Spots Emerge
However, the homes that weren’t destroyed didn’t necessarily escape damage. For an Inside Climate News series called “After the Fires,” Nina Dietz has spent months reporting on health risks following the LA infernos. Dietz followed scientists and homeowners’ efforts to uncover how lead and other toxic substances from the smoke and ash affected the buildings that remained. In some cases, insurance companies have resisted paying for testing and decontamination, which could leave homeowners at risk of serious health problems such as cancer, experts say.
The Baffler: Blame and Claim
…the insurance industry has been, in recent years, denying more claims and more coverage, exiting major markets, and raising premiums. As governments and corporations continue to enable fossil fuels, throttle renewable-energy sources, and deny long-established climate science, the related catastrophes (fires, floods, droughts, storms) and social effects (mass migration, war over natural resources, economic and demographic stratification) are increasingly commonplace and metastasizing. This new world order transfers the risk and harm of the disaster business by way of the insurance industry onto you, the consumer.
The Independent: Nearly half of American homeowners want to relocate in 2026 because of extreme weather and other climate concerns
A rising number of American homeowners are ready [to] relocate this year due to extreme weather events and other climate-related concerns.
Some 49 percent of those who own a house are considering moving in 2026 due to climate events, according to a survey of 1,000 American adults by insurance provider Kin Insurance. Also a concern among homeowners is the rising cost of homeownership, the study noted.
Newsweek: Hidden Housing Cost Could Be One of ‘Biggest Risks’ to Owners in 2026
States where property taxes and homeowners insurance premiums are surging faster are seeing a spike in mortgage delinquency cases, according to a recent report by real estate analytics company Cotality.
The phenomenon is glaringly clear in the Midwest and the South, the firm said, where an expected rise in escrow costs represent one of the biggest challenges of the new year for homeowners.
