Ep. 573 Navigating California’s Hardening Marketplace

Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley sits down with Account Executive Casey Craig to analyze how business owners can navigate California’s hardening insurance marketplace.

Show Notes: ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter⁠⁠⁠.

Director/Host: ⁠⁠⁠Alyssa Burley⁠⁠⁠

Guest: ⁠⁠⁠Casey Craig⁠⁠⁠

Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production

© Copyright 2025. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Alyssa Burley: You're listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive. I'm your host, Alyssa Burley, and I'm joined by Casey Craig, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in providing risk management for painting, plaster, and drywall contractors. Today, we're going to take a look at how business owners can navigate California's hardening insurance marketplace. Casey, welcome to the show.

Casey Craig: Thanks for having me.

AB: Of course. So you recently wrote an article about the hardening market in California. So what factors have been contributing to the contraction and volatility in the state's insurance market over the last five years or so?

CC: Yeah, I mean, we've been writing a lot of articles lately about this. This is something that's kind of impacting every industry. It's a tough question because it kind of has a lot of different lines of insurance that are being impacted. But if you look back to like 2020 to 2025, there was a big problem with the auto marketplace. So carriers needed increased rates, they weren't able to get them through the state. So a bunch of carriers left all at once. So that really impacted there.

For property, wildfires have really been a big problem. For inland marine, theft has really been taking off. For general liability, the cost of rebuilding, that's gotten a little out of control. So everybody's being impacted a little bit there.

AB: Yeah. So how has litigation impacted premiums? Because we're seeing that a lot in California.

CC: Yeah, it's impacted certain industries more than others. I would say auto and work comp are probably the biggest ones where you're seeing fraudulent claims or post-termination claims. They're starting to get lawyers involved and it turns into a much larger one. The burden on the carrier is they have to be able to prove beyond 1%. That's pretty impossible to do. On auto, there's a lot more favorable verdicts for incidents where you're going to have somebody have a minor accident, but they're hit by a corporation.

The lawyers are suing for the limits of not only the auto, but probably looking into what they're getting from the excess as well. And they're just getting a lot more lenient on what they're getting out. Problem with that is it does lead to if you're suing for more money, the carrier is losing money. They need to increase the rates for everybody else. It just turns into a vicious cycle.

AB: Yeah, and I think that we're starting to see all of that. So why is partnering with a specialized broker, like yourself, and carrier critical for businesses in today's California insurance environment?

CC: Yeah, it's getting tougher and tougher to find coverage. I mean, these carriers, sometimes the reinsurance is tightening where they're not able to have the same coverage that they were last year. So you might think just because you're renewed with the same carrier that you can do the same operations, and that's not necessarily the case anymore. So having a broker that specializes, understands your industry, understands your guy's risk, he's going to be able to pair you with the right carriers and make sure there are no gaps from year to year. Not to mention the carriers are a little less likely to release favorable quotes. You need a broker that's willing to fight for those extra credits.

AB: Yeah. So somebody who really understands the client's industry and what they're doing.

CC: Exactly

AB: All right. Well, Casey, if listeners have questions about effectively navigating this hardening market, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

CC: You can give me a call at 619-438-6900, or you can email me at ccraig@ranchomesa.com.

AB: All right. Well, Casey, thanks for joining me in Studio One.

CC: Thanks for having me.

AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by Studio One. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.