Wildfire Insurance Is Changing: What Carriers Want to See

Wildfire insurance is changing, but many homeowners, HOA boards, and property managers still do not know which mitigation improvements carriers recognize—or how completed work should be documented.

In this episode of All Things Wildfire, we sit down with Andrew Engler of Rock Rose Risk, a retail insurance broker focused specifically on wildfire and working with 27 carriers across homeowners and commercial properties.

Andrew explains the difference between macro mitigation, including community fuel breaks, utility hardening, terrain, and fire-department access, and micro mitigation, including Zone 0 clearance, Class A roofing, ember-resistant vents, and parcel-level vegetation management.

We also discuss:

How mitigation may affect insurability and insurance pricing Why Firewise and Fire Safe Council leadership matters The importance of annual fuel management and updated ground-level data Admitted and non-admitted wildfire carriers The role and limitations of the California FAIR Plan Why aggregation risk prevents one carrier from insuring every home in a community How brokers translate mitigation work into information underwriters can evaluate Why communities should make themselves attractive to multiple carriers Andrew also shares why homeowners should not assume that nothing can be done simply because they live in a high wildfire-risk area.

The central takeaway: mitigation is most powerful when it is coordinated, maintained, documented, and presented to carriers that understand the work.

Listen now to learn what homeowners and communities can do to become more insurable.

Insurance availability, pricing, and discounts vary. Mitigation does not guarantee coverage, premium savings, or protection from loss.