New $20M Coverage for California Commercial Property E&S Risks in Wildfire Areas

Wildfire Defense Insurance Services is offering a $20 million excess and surplus commercial property coverage for E&S risks in wildfire prone areas of California.

The coverage is for total insured value up to $20 million.

WDIS offers E&S commercial property insurance with WDSresponse, provided by WDIS’ affiliate partner, Wildfire Defense Systems, a wildfire services provider that specializes in the placement of commercial E&S wildfire risks through retail agents.

An analysis by CoreLogic of the top 15 areas for wildfire exposure. in the country showed that six are in California.

Los Angeles tops the list with 185,763 properties at a higher risk and at a reconstruction value of $143.3 billion. The rest of the top five are Riverside (166,372 at $86.6 billion), San Diego (123,060 at $75.6 billion), Sacramento (91,475 at $53.2 billion) and San Francisco (56,985 at $40.2 billion).

The Top 15 U.S. Metros with High Exposure to Wildfire Risk

The CoreLogic report said that the number of wildfires per year is going down, but the increasing size and intensity of the fires is creating more property damage than ever before – in fact, the average fire size has tripled over the past 30 years, a new analysis shows.

Last month, Munich Re Specialty Insurance announced it is offering a FAIR Plan Commercial Wrap, available to commercial insureds in California who seek comprehensive coverage in tandem with their coverage from the FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort.

Sold through wholesale brokers, the product gives businesses access to coverage for property damage – including water damage, burst pipe coverage and other non-fire perils – that the FAIR plan excludes.

This coverage is being provided on a non-admitted business and may not be available in all circumstances.

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Commercial Lines Wildfire Business Insurance Excess Surplus Property