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Insurers Have Now Paid Out Nearly $7B for LA Wildfires, Report Shows

February 13, 2025

Å©·òµ¼º½ 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 Å©·òµ¼º½, which on Feb. 13 released the latest data on claims paid for the fires. The figures were updated from data out on Jan. 30, which showed $4.2 billion in claims paid.

Data from insurers released by the CDI show 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 in line with early estimates from modelers of between $8 billion and $40 billion.

Mercury Å©·òµ¼º½ 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 carriers 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, prompting 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.

Photo: A worker surveys the damage from the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Carriers Wildfire Louisiana

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