Insurance.

Senator Allen, with Assembly Member Harabedian as a coauthor, advances a measure that creates a climate-risk market intelligence framework within California’s Insurance Code to collect reinsurance data and monitor catastrophe-modeling practices while preserving confidentiality for insurer-specific information, and also revises indemnity and proof-of-loss timelines for residential property losses in declared states of emergency along with new contents-advance provisions.

The bill requires, by March 1 each year, an admitted insurer with prior-year written premiums totaling at least 50 million dollars across specified lines (fire, allied lines, private flood, homeowners, farmowners, and commercial nonliability) to submit a report to the Insurance Commissioner containing data necessary to understand its reinsurance program placement and the use of probabilistic catastrophe models for the preceding year, using the latest available reinsurance treaty year data. A consolidated report may be submitted for all insurers within a holding company system. Inquiries about the submitted data must be answered promptly. The commissioner must post an aggregated public report on the department’s website, ensuring the data are sufficiently aggregated to avoid identifying individual insurers or their practices. Information submitted under the article is confidential and exempt from public records requests, with penalties for noncompliance and a mechanism for extensions.

On the indemnity and timing provisions, the bill adjusts how replacement costs are measured and the timeline for pursuing full replacement cost. For open policies paying replacement cost, indemnity equals the cost to repair, rebuild, or replace, up to policy limits, without depreciation; if the policy requires repair before full replacement, the insurer pays actual cash value until repairs are completed, then pays the difference up to policy limits. A minimum time frame to pursue full replacement cost is 12 months ordinarily, extended to 36 months for losses arising in a state of emergency, with additional six-month extensions for good cause where delays are outside the insured’s control. In total-loss scenarios related to a state of emergency, building-code upgrade costs and replacement costs are treated so long as they are otherwise covered by the policy, with indemnity not exceeding the cost to repair or replace at the original location; for residential policies, replacement-damage measures may be based on the original location without deducting land value. The bill also permits, in state-of-emergency losses, an advance payment for contents equal to 60 percent of the contents limit up to 350,000 dollars without an itemized claim, with the insured able to pursue additional contents through a subsequent itemized claim, and the option to require an attestation form as a condition of receiving the advance.

Broader regulatory and implementation considerations frame how the bill operates in practice. The Insurance Commissioner is empowered to specify the reporting format and content and to promulgate regulations to advance the article’s purposes, with penalties for noncompliance and a process for extensions and appeals. Information disclosed under the new data framework is confidential and shielded from public records requests, while an aggregated public report will be published to provide market insights without identifying individual insurers. The changes become effective for policy forms issued or renewed after July 1, 2026, aligning new indemnity calculations, timelines, and contents-payment mechanics with the policy renewal cycle. Taken together, the provisions create a two-part framework: enhanced market intelligence and transparency around reinsurance and catastrophe modeling, alongside clarified and extended protections and options for insureds during declared emergencies, framed within a transition plan for regulatory implementation and enforcement.