Nevada homeowners won’t get burned on insurance from California fires

CARSON CITY -- The fires raging across Southern California won't cause a jump in the cost of homeowners' insurance in Nevada.

Chuck Knaus, an actuary with the state Insurance Division since 1970, said only the "Nevada losses" are considered when the state insurance commissioner authorizes rates for homeowners' insurance companies.

"Nevada rates are based on Nevada costs," he said. "We try to use Nevada data exclusively."

He added Nevada homeowners' insurance rates were not increased following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or after Southern California fires in 2003 when 3,600 homes were destroyed.

"Over the years, insurers have absorbed losses from some fairly large wildfires in California and stayed in business," Knaus said. "I cannot remember any time where a company used data from outside Nevada for Nevada rates."

State law and insurance regulations permit insurance companies "tending toward financial difficulties" to offer data about losses in other states, according to Knaus. But he cannot remember a time when that information actually was used to calculate Nevada rates.

Knaus noted State Farm Insurance, traditionally the first- or second-largest insurance company in Nevada, has reduced its homeowners' rates in the state for six consecutive years. That covers the period of Hurricane Katrina and other major instances of wildfires in California. Allstate Insurance is the only company he knows that made an effort to reduce business in California following wildfires there.

A wildfire in June at Lake Tahoe destroyed 255 homes, but all were on the California side of the lake and consequently did not affect Nevada insurance rates.