Best Fire Insurance Companies for Wildfire Risk (2026)

The high-net-worth carrier that still writes wildfire homes — for a price.

🚒 Wildfire Defense Services

Chubb specializes in affluent and high-value homes and has remained one of the more willing admitted carriers in wildfire country, partly because it pairs coverage with its Wildfire Defense Services — private crews that apply retardant and protective measures to enrolled homes during active fires. That appetite comes with premium pricing and strict underwriting (hardening, defensible space, roof age).

The gold standard for military families — A++ strength, top-ranked claims, and one of the few national carriers still writing wildfire-exposed homes.

🚒 USAA Wildfire Response Program

USAA has maintained one of the more stable wildfire underwriting postures of any national carrier during the California insurance crisis. While it has tightened in the highest-risk ZIPs and raised rates — particularly in California and Colorado — it remains actively writing new homeowners policies where many competitors have paused entirely. USAA is one of the carriers explicitly committed to staying and growing in California under the state’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy, alongside Mercury and CSAA. Its membership structure (military-only) means the risk pool is inherently different from broad-market carriers, which helps it sustain appetite where others can’t. That said, eligibility is a hard gate: if you or your parent or spouse never served in the U.S. military, USAA cannot write you regardless of how low your wildfire risk is.

2024: Filed moderate homeowners rate increases in California and Colorado reflecting sustained wildfire losses; increases were lower than many competitors in the same filing cycle.

Member-owned high-net-worth insurer with a wildfire focus.

🚒 PURE wildfire mitigation & response

PURE (Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange) is a member-owned high-net-worth carrier that has stayed active in wildfire markets and reports being relatively unaffected by recent California wildfires — one reason it maintains one of the industry’s best combined ratios. It offers wildfire mitigation consultations and a private emergency-response service across the West. Like Chubb, it’s oriented to higher-value homes and underwrites hardening closely.

Apr 2026: Reported total premium under management surpassing $3 billion, citing the resilience of its member-owned model through recent catastrophes.

Membership carrier that has kept writing in parts of the West.

🚒 AAA Wildfire Protection Services & hardening discount

AAA home insurance is written by regional clubs — in California, CSAA Insurance Group (Northern California) and the Auto Club’s Interinsurance Exchange (Southern California), which are legally separate AAA-branded entities. CSAA is one of the carriers expanding under the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, with a plan to quote some FAIR Plan policyholders and move them back to the admitted market, plus a new wildfire-hardening discount. Appetite and the specific underwriting company vary by state and region.

Oct 2025: CSAA announced an initiative to transition AAA members off the California FAIR Plan and a "My Home Hardening" discount, as part of the Sustainable Insurance Strategy.

The physics-modeled insurtech built to insure the high-value wildfire homes others won’t.

🚒 Physics-based hardening + Frontline Wildfire Defense

Stand is a wildfire-first insurtech founded by a team from Metromile, Policygenius, and HotelTonight that targets exactly the homes the market abandoned: high-value ($2M–$10M) properties in severe wildfire country. Instead of redlining a ZIP, Stand runs physics-based wildfire simulations — combining remote-sensing data with homeowner-supplied details (window materials, roof, surrounding tree species) to model how wind, heat, and embers would attack the specific structure. Coverage and price are tied to resilience: harden the home (or add an active-defense system) and Stand can write — and price — risk that standard carriers simply decline. It became one of the most-watched names in wildfire insurance after the January 2025 Los Angeles fires.

Oct 2025: Closed a $35M Series B (led by Eclipse) and announced expansion into Florida; surpassed $1B in insured value.

A California-rooted carrier still writing where others paused.

Mercury is a California-founded insurer that has continued writing homeowners business through the crisis and is one of the carriers staying and growing under the state’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy. In August 2025 it filed California’s first SIS homeowners rate plan using a reviewed wildfire catastrophe model, and committed to adding tens of thousands of policies — explicitly targeting distressed, higher-wildfire-risk areas and FAIR Plan depopulation. Appetite still varies by ZIP, and rates have risen.

2025: Committed to 38,000+ new policies long-term (6,000+ over two years) focused on wildfire-distressed areas and FAIR Plan depopulation.

The backstop when no one else will write you — basic fire coverage only.

A FAIR Plan is the insurer of last resort — available in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, and (new in 2025) Colorado. It provides basic fire coverage only, usually at a higher price for less protection, so you pair it with a Difference-in-Conditions (DIC) policy for liability, theft, and water damage. California’s plan has grown explosively as carriers retreated, and the state is now pushing carriers to "depopulate" it by writing those homes back onto the admitted market.

Oct 2025: California FAIR Plan filed for a 35.8% average rate increase on dwelling-fire policies; new rates expected ~April 2026.

Direct insurtech that targets catastrophe-exposed homes — including California wildfire.

Kin is a direct-to-consumer insurtech, owned by its policyholders through reciprocal exchanges, that intentionally targets catastrophe-exposed markets (it’s best known in Florida hurricane country). It returned to California in March 2025, saying it was entering "because of its wildfire exposure, not in spite of it." That means it sometimes writes homes others decline — but it’s a newer, reciprocal-exchange model rated by Demotech rather than AM Best, so weigh the financial profile and read the policy carefully.

2025: Its second reciprocal exchange (Kin Interinsurance Nexus) earned a Demotech A (Exceptional) Financial Stability Rating.

California-focused MGA writing in tough wildfire ZIPs.

Bamboo is a California-centric managing general agent that has built its book specifically in the state’s difficult wildfire markets. Most of its California homeowner policies are underwritten by Sutton National (admitted), with some surplus-lines and, since September 2025, an E&S "Signature" product backed by Accredited to widen its appetite. It’s often surfaced as an alternative for homes nationals declined, though acceptance still depends on the specific ZIP and home hardening.

Oct 2025: White Mountains agreed to sell a controlling interest to CVC Capital Partners, valuing Bamboo at roughly $1.75 billion.

The largest U.S. home insurer — but pulled back hard in California.

State Farm is the biggest homeowners insurer in the country and still the default in much of the interior West. But it became the face of California’s crisis: it paused new homeowner applications statewide in 2023 and filed large non-renewal batches in high-hazard ZIPs, then sought emergency rate increases after the January 2025 Los Angeles firestorm. In high-risk California areas you often cannot get a new State Farm policy at all; elsewhere it remains competitive, especially bundled.

Mar 2026: Settlement with CA regulators kept the 17% increase and extended a moratorium halting mass non-renewals through 2026.

Major national carrier that is re-opening its California appetite.

Farmers capped the number of new policies it would write in California during the crisis and tightened WUI underwriting, but has since signaled it is "eyeing California favorably." In late 2024 it reopened condo, renters and umbrella lines and raised its cap on new homeowners policies to 9,500 per month (from 7,000). Its specialty arm Foremost writes some non-standard and dwelling-fire risks. Appetite still varies sharply by ZIP.

Dec 2024: Reopened California condo, renters and personal-umbrella lines and raised its new-homeowners cap to 9,500 policies/month (from 7,000), signaling a more favorable California stance.

Big national carrier that paused new California home policies — and is filing to come back.

Allstate stopped selling new homeowners policies in California in 2022 over wildfire and cost pressures. It is now among the first carriers — alongside Mercury and CSAA — to say it will file to write more policies under California’s new Sustainable Insurance Strategy framework, which lets insurers use catastrophe models and reinsurance costs in rates in exchange for covering more high-risk homes. Outside the hardest markets it remains a large, financially strong option.

2025: Among the first carriers to commit to filing for more California policies under the Sustainable Insurance Strategy.

Tech-first home insurer with proactive monitoring — appetite varies by ZIP.

🚒 Proactive home protection

Hippo emphasizes prevention (smart-home sensors, proactive maintenance) and writes through its own carrier Spinnaker and partners. Its underwriting uses wildfire scoring: homes scored "minimal" or "low" are eligible, while moderate-or-higher wildfire scores are generally ineligible — so it is effectively closed to the highest-hazard ZIPs. It took an estimated $42M catastrophe loss from the January 2025 LA wildfires, and its Spinnaker unit added fire to its catastrophe-bond program for the first time in 2026.

2026: Spinnaker sponsored a ~$100M catastrophe bond that added fire to its multi-peril protection for the first time.