What happened: California enacted a law requiring the FAIR Plan to share policyholder data with private insurers and push clients toward the voluntary market.
Who's involved: The California FAIR Plan Association, all admitted and nonadmitted property insurers participating in clearinghouse programs, and every licensed property insurance broker in the state.
What's at stake: The FAIR Plan's growing policy count - the law creates new mechanisms to move policyholders off the insurer of last resort and back into the private market.
Why it matters: Brokers face new training mandates and disclosure obligations; insurers gain direct access to policyholder data for targeted offers.
Where it stands: Signed into law September 27, 2026, with key provisions phasing in through January 1, 2028.
California just told every FAIR Plan policyholder in the state to call their broker.
AB 69, authored by Assemblymember Calderon, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 27, 2026. Filed as Chapter 496, it amends California Insurance Code Sections 10095 and 10095.5 and adds a new Section 10095.2 - all aimed at shrinking the FAIR Plan's book by pushing policyholders toward the voluntary market.
The headline change is a mandatory notice the FAIR Plan must now send every policyholder at least annually, at initial issuance, and at each renewal. It must appear in 14-point boldface on its own page. The message is direct: contact your broker, you have the right to shop around, and the marketplace changes regularly.
That notice is not just words on a page.
Starting January 1, 2028, the FAIR Plan may share policyholder information - including the agent or broker of record - with insurers in its homeowners' and commercial clearinghouse programs. Private insurers can then make direct offers to FAIR Plan policyholders without waiting for them to come knocking.
One guardrail: if a policy lists an agent or broker of record, the insurer must make its offer simultaneously to both the intermediary and the policyholder. Brokers are not being cut out - they are being conscripted.
Privacy protections apply. The FAIR Plan must comply with California's Insurance Information and Privacy Protection Act, notify policyholders how their data will be shared, and provide an opt-out.
AB 69 adds two obligations. Agents and brokers must provide clients with information about the clearinghouse programs as part of their duty to assist in obtaining property coverage. And every registered agent and broker must complete a department-approved training course on advising policyholders about voluntary market options.
From May 1, 2027, every admitted and nonadmitted insurer in the clearinghouse programs must report quarterly how many policies it has written for association policyholders. The FAIR Plan then has 30 days to send aggregated figures to the Insurance Commissioner and the Assembly and Senate insurance committees, and to post them publicly. The association must also maintain and quarterly update a public list of participating insurers.
California is building the plumbing to move property risk off its insurer of last resort - and brokers, insurers, and policyholders will all feel the pressure.
The provisions of AB 69 take effect on the dates specified in the enacted text. Regulatory implementation details may be further defined by the California Department of Insurance.
