California FAIR plan now processing CEA Quote Submissions

Two distinct California quasi governement insurers are now working in tandem.

Program is intended for FAIR plan policies.

CEA and FAIR:

According to an email bulletin “The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) quote submission process has just been made easier. It is now automated through the California FAIR Plan broker portal and can be done online.” It is our belief that this is a change of process and procedure.

How the CEA policies used to be processed:

Historically CEA policies were exclusively processed by the Home Insurance Policy. The exact details of how this will work are not exactly clear at the time of the writing of this short article. Typically one would contact their home insurer and home insurance agent to receive a quote from the California Earthquake Authority. How exactly FAIR plan policies processed CEA policies was unclear.

A Significant Change to CEA & FAIR policies?

The CFPnet.com website now has a page dedicated to Earthquake policies.

The page states:

“Did you know that most Californians live within 30 miles of an active fault? There are currently 15,700 known faults in the state. The FAIR Plan offers earthquake coverage—for customers with a FAIR Plan dwelling fire policy—as one of a number of participating member companies of the California Earthquake Authority (CEA).

Earthquake coverage is available through the CEA for the following:” – then the page goes onto explain the four different types of structural types: Condos, Dwellings, Renters, Mobile and Manufacturerd.

The page doees state that: “A stand-alone earthquake policy written by the FAIR Plan is not available. You must have an in-force FAIR Plan policy to qualify for CEA coverage through the FAIR Plan.” This is helpful. This simply means that you just can not purchase a CEA policy by itself. You must have the FAIR plan to get it through this site.

It also adds: “The FAIR Plan offers earthquake coverage through the California Earthquake Authority as a separate policy for customers with a FAIR Plan dwelling fire policy.”

What is the FAIR Plan:

Simply put the California FAIR plan is the insurer of last resto in the state. The FAIR plan is “not a state agency, nor is it a public entity…” It is a “syndicated fire insurance pool… licensed to conduct property/casualty business in California.” The FAIR Plan” is meant as a “temporary safety net.” Although it was set up as a temporary tool with all of the wildfires in the state the insurer has become a fixutre in many Californian communities.

Why the FAIR plan is now processing CEA Applications?

The simple answer to this quesiton is that Quakecov does not know. However in our opinion being that the FAIR plan seems to be less and less a temporary safety net and more tha normal insurer in my communities it seems necesary to now allow those insured to also acquire a earthquake policy through the CEA.

If you have a FAIR plan do you Have to Buy Earthquake Insurance through the CEA?

The CEA is an insurance option, but it is not the only solution. Several highly rated earthquake insurers will consider writing homes written by the FAIR plan. Any unlike CEA earthquake policies, these so called standalone earthquake vendors do not have to pair with the underlying home insurer.