Insurers Have Paid out $6.9B for LA Wildfires, Report Shows

Insurance companies have so far paid out more than $6.9 billion for losses from the biggest two of the Los Angeles-area wildfires that swept through the region and destroyed tens of thousands of homes last month.

That’s according to the California Department of Insurance, which released the latest data on claims paid for the fires on Thursday. The fires were updated from data out on Jan. 30, which had showed $4.2 billion in claims paid.

Claims figures from insurers released by the CDI show that 33,717 claims have been filed for home, business, living expenses and other disaster-related expenses. The data show 5,597 auto insurance claims have been filed for $73 million.

Insured losses from the fires are likely to rise. At this point losses look to be heading toward early estimates from modelers of up to $40 billion. Mercury Insurance Group reported on Wednesday it expects gross losses from the wildfires to be in the $1.6 billion-$2.0 billion range, but the company believes potential subrogation and reinsurance recoveries will drop the ultimate bill down to $325 million or less.

Mercury is one of handful of major California insurers to have reported losses in excess of $1 billion from the wildfires. Travelers Companies Inc. announced it will lose an estimated $1.7 billion from last month’s wildfires

USAA, Chubb, Allstate and State Farm are other big carrers to have reported $1 billion or more in losses from the fires.

The California FAIR Plan reported it paid more than $914 million to policyholders affected by the fires, promoting the insurer of last resort to go to the state’s insurance commissioner for a $1 billion assessment on admitted market insurers to cover the claims.

Total economic losses from the fires in January could range from $95 billion to $164 billion, according to a report out last week from UCLA.

Topics
Catastrophe
Natural Disasters
Carriers
Wildfire
Louisiana