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SALT LAKE CITY — When all is said and done, the wildfires this month in Southern California are certain to break money records.
The losses could reach as high as $30 billion for the insurance industry. As the big national insurance companies try to absorb this financial hit, will people outside the Los Angeles area see their premiums go up?
"That's a good question," said Bill Penton, owner of Penton Insurance Agency.
He said insurance companies are required by law to collect enough premiums to pay out claims. However, he suspects that people living in California will be most likely to have their insurance premiums burdened.
"We may see a small 1 or 2, or 3 % difference," Penton said.
He said Utah should only see a "small increase" in insurance rates due to the wildfires. Utahns have seen rates increase quite a bit in recent years due to inflation and weather risks like hail, wind and fire.
Insurance companies have been known to drop clients they deemed too risky to insure. But insurance companies tend to go state by state and zip code by zip code, Penton said. If your rates go up, he said it's mostly how much risk an insurance company deems you to be.
"They are looking at that real hard and they are tightening their belt," he said.
