The bills listed below are those in which we are actively engaged and that have the potential to further disrupt an already unstable market. These represent our top priorities. We are working closely with authors’ offices and committee staff to address the issues in these measures, while reinforcing to lawmakers that their focus should remain on the Sustainable Insurance Strategy as the most effective path to market stability.
SB 876 (Padilla) Fire and residential property insurance.
SB 876 is an incredibly far-reaching measure that contains more than 20 different policy proposals, which impact insurers and policyholders in a variety of adverse ways. Although after many hours of negotiations Senator Padilla has agreed to remove several of the most harmful proposals in the bill, SB 876 remains one of the most dangerous proposals in the Legislature this year. Among its most troubling provisions, it imposes costly mandates such as higher additional living expense limits and full contents payouts that will significantly raise premiums and further strain California’s insurance market. These mandates shift insurance away from its core function of indemnification toward more standardized, enhanced benefits, increasing the price that Californians must pay for their insurance regardless of their needs or choices. Ultimately, SB 876 undermines its own stated goals of consumer protection and affordability. By driving up premiums and limiting insurer participation, it will push more households into the FAIR Plan, the insurer of last resort.
SB 877 (Perez) Residential property insurance: loss estimate transparency.
SB 877 would have required insurers to provide every version of all claim-related documents within 15 days of creation, including draft and internal working documents, along with the names and titles of individuals involved in revisions and detailed explanations for each change. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of PIFC lobbyists, agents and stakeholders this bill has been significantly pared back. Amendments coming out of senate insurance committee remove both the “every version” language and the requirement to list names and titles of all individuals involved in the claim. While we are still reviewing the amended language, we can say with confidence the bill is in much better shape today than it was just 10 days ago.
SB 878 (Perez) Insurance business practices.
SB 878 would expand and codify regulatory prompt‑payment timelines for fire insurance claims and impose automatic penalties for noncompliance, including interest at a rate of 20 percent per year and mandatory payment of the insured’s attorney’s fees. These penalties would apply even when delays are caused by factors outside an insurer’s control, such as incomplete information, large‑scale catastrophes, or ongoing coverage investigations. Such inflexible statutory damages are disproportionate, untethered from actual consumer harm, and provide incentives for attorneys to draw out settlement disputes. This bill would impose rigid statutory penalties and public reporting requirements that surpass current California regulations and could create unintended consequences for policyholders and the residential property insurance market.
SB 1301 (Allen) Residential property insurance: nonrenewals
SB 1301 would impose extensive new operational, data reporting, underwriting, and compliance mandates including a minimum 180-day nonrenewal notice period. The bill replaces long-standing, functional frameworks with a highly prescriptive system that will increase administrative costs, reduce underwriting flexibility, and ultimately strain market capacity—without reliably improving consumer outcomes. Thanks once again to the collective efforts of PIFC lobbyist, agents, and stakeholders the author has committed to reducing his proposal to a 90 day non-renewal notice, as negotiations with the industry continue.
SB 1209 (Allen) – Examination of Insurers.
This bill changes “recommendations” into mandates. The effect of this change would create a pathway for binding rules that are not grounded in statute nor adopted through formal rulemaking. This bill is a power grab that will create uncertainty in the market as carriers will have no way of ensuring that they are complying with the law if the law can change on an examiner’s whim.
AB 1795 (Gipson) Smoke Damage Recovery Act.
AB 1795 introduces a comprehensive new framework governing wildfire smoke testing, remediation, and insurance claims handling. While intended to improve consistency and consumer outcomes, several provisions raise significant concerns for insurers related to contract certainty, retroactive application, operational feasibility, and cost escalation.
Bills We Support
AB 1726 (Calderon) Natural disasters: catastrophe savings accounts: personal income tax.
AB 1726 would authorize California homeowners to establish a Catastrophe Savings Account (CSAs) within financial institutions. Funds deposited in these accounts would be exempt from state income tax. These CSAs will help Californians cover emergency-related expenses incurred due to damage to, or loss of, a home caused by a wildfire, flood, or earthquake that has been declared an emergency by the Governor. Californians should have access to all the available tools to assist with recovery after disaster. Allowing Californians to open a state income tax exempt account to prepare in advance for the future is a responsible financial step forward.
SB 894 (Allen) Wildfire resiliency: financial assistance.
SB 894 would establish the California Wildfire Resilience Loan Program, administered by the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA) and modeled after the state’s successful GoGreen financing platform. SB 894 creates a state-backed loan loss reserve that can leverage public dollars at roughly 10-to-1, unlock private capital, reduce interest rates, and finance home hardening and defensible space improvements for residential and small business properties.
SB 911 (Becker) Transfer of real property: fire hazard severity zones: compliance documentation.
SB 911 closes a gap in existing law by ensuring that the appropriate enforcement entity is notified when a buyer and seller enter into a pre-sale agreement to comply with defensible space requirements. In addition, SB 911 requires a follow-up inspection by the local fire enforcement agency within one year of the sale to confirm that the property meets defensible space standards for fire protection.
SB 988 (Grayson) California Motor Vehicle Glass Act.
Modern motor vehicle glass relies on advanced technologies like ADAS, making proper installation and calibration essential for safety. However, practices such as Assignment of Benefits (AOB), inducements, and aggressive marketing have led to risks including improper calibration, unnecessary replacements, inflated claims, and reduced consumer transparency, driving up litigation and insurance costs. SB 988 addresses these issues by prohibiting AOB for glass repair, requiring ADAS calibration disclosure and verification, mandating clear estimates and invoices, eliminating steering incentives, and preserving consumer choice. These reforms strengthen consumer protections, improve safety, and help control costs.
SB 1162 (Alvarado-Gil) Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force: FAIR Plan policies: wildland-urban interface.
SB 1162 would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, in consultation with the Department of Insurance and the California FAIR Plan Association, to make recommendations to prioritize state efforts to reduce wildfire hazards in the wildland-urban interface identified in the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan for ZIP codes that have seen the largest increases in FAIR Plan policies sold since 2019.
