California E&S market reshapes entry
Commentary argues California's excess‑and‑surplus market is evolving into a more flexible model for property insurance, and Kingstone Companies plans to enter the California market in Q2 2026. The reporting frames the state as a testing ground where carriers can use looser structures to write risk. (insurancebusinessmag.com) (reinsurancene.ws)
California’s excess-and-surplus market is becoming a bigger entry point for property insurers, and Kingstone says it plans to start writing California homeowners business there in the second quarter of 2026. (kingstonecompanies.com) Excess-and-surplus insurance is the nonadmitted market: carriers can cover risks that standard insurers decline, and they operate outside California’s approved-rate system. California’s Department of Insurance runs a List of Approved Surplus Lines Insurers for that market. (slacal.com) (insurance.ca.gov) Kingstone said on April 8 that it will enter California on an excess-and-surplus basis, use ZestyAI’s wildfire model for property-level underwriting, and keep a 30% quota share on the business as it starts up. The company said the structure gives it pricing flexibility and lets it use forward-looking wildfire models in rating. (kingstonecompanies.com) California is trying to pull more carriers back into high-risk areas through a different channel in the admitted market. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in July 2025 that insurers using approved wildfire catastrophe models will be required to write more policies in wildfire-distressed areas affecting more than 1.5 million homeowners and FAIR Plan customers. (lassennews.com) That push comes after the state’s insurer of last resort kept swelling. The California FAIR Plan said its total exposure reached $724 billion as of December 2025, up 230% from September 2022, with written premium at $1.98 billion. (cfpnet.com) The FAIR Plan was set up to provide basic fire coverage when property owners cannot get insurance in the traditional market, and its own website says it is meant to be a temporary solution. Customers often pair it with a Difference in Conditions policy for broader protection. (cfpnet.com) State documents show the FAIR Plan’s role expanded as admitted insurers pulled back from wildfire-exposed business. A 2024 stipulation approved by the insurance commissioner said the normal market had stopped writing new property policies or non-renewed substantial numbers of policies in wildfire-risk areas, increasing reliance on the FAIR Plan. (cacm.org) Researchers at Stanford’s Climate and Energy Policy Program said new FAIR Plan data through June 2025 showed continued growth in residential exposure, raising questions about the plan’s capacity and about incentives for private insurers to scale back underwriting. (cepp.stanford.edu) Kingstone is positioning its California move as measured, not transformational on day one. In its March 2026 earnings call, the company said California would start at less than 5% of 2026 premium as it uses the market to extend the catastrophe-focused underwriting model it built in New York. (aol.com) California now has two tracks moving at once: regulators are trying to rebuild the admitted market with model-based pricing tied to coverage commitments, while new entrants such as Kingstone are testing how much business can be written first through the excess-and-surplus channel. (lassennews.com) (kingstonecompanies.com)
