State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) has proposed legislation that would require insurance companies to cover 100% of the losses to personal property in fires without requiring customers to fill out details lists of possessions.
Allen’s bill, called the “Eliminate ‘The List’ Act,” seeks to alleviate the trauma and logistical difficulty of compiling a list of possessions that are lost in a fire — which the New York Times recently described as a major source of stress.
Existing state law requires insurance companies to provide customers 30% of the value of their policies for property losses without providing an itemized list. California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has asked companies to provide 100% voluntarily, giving them a deadline of Friday, February 28, to respond.
Breitbart News surveyed residents and insurance companies to discover the itemization policies of each provider. Many companies did not respond to queries; of the insurance companies below, USAA was the most responsive.
- AAA – provides for bulk itemization (in which customers describe items in general without itemizing)
- Aegis – no response
- California Fair Plan – Unclear (“The FAIR Plan is managing claims in accordance with California law and the terms of the insurance policies issued to our customers” was the response)
- Farmers – 30% payout, then full itemization
- Mercury – 75% payout, then full itemization
- Pacific Specialty – 100% payout without itemization
- Safeco – Unclear (“We are complying with Commissioner Lara’s orders” was the response)
- SageSure – 70% payout, then full itemization
- State Farm – 50% payout, then full itemization
- Travelers – Unclear
- USAA – 75% payout, then full itemization
Lara has also “sponsored” State Sen. Allen’s bill, along with nine other bills that attempt to address shortfalls in insurance that have troubled fire victims in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Pasadena, and Altadena.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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