Western U.S. states have seen a dramatic increase in wildfire losses over the last decade.  Insured losses exceeded $27 bn USD during the 2017 and 2018 seasons alone, with most damage coming from California.  While the industry experienced only one company insolvency, insurers have been scaling back on the number of policies in force across the West.  Lack of insurance coverage options are hurting consumers while risk from wildfires is increasing. 

Catastrophe models (“CAT models”) are probabilistically based risk assessment tools and methods that leverage existing scientific understanding to assess plausible natural disaster risk beyond the historical record.  CAT modelers will provide insights on how catastrophe modeling firms handle wildfire in order to allow for assessing the insolvency potential of insurance companies, developing rating and pricing plans, and promoting risk reduction (mitigation) in the general population.