Which Insurers Are Leaving Which States?

Start here. The table below is the precise, specific list — and precision is the point. Notice the “What they did” column: very few of these are true full exits. Most are pauses on new business or targeted non‑renewals in the highest‑risk ZIP codes. Dates reflect when each action was announced; effects roll out over the following months and, in many cases, are still in force in 2026.

This list changes month to month and varies by ZIP code and policy type. Always confirm a carrier’s current status with the company and your state’s Department of Insurance before acting.

Quick Answers to the Top Questions

Is my specific insurer leaving?

Probably not in a way that cancels your current policy. The most common move is a pause on new business or selective non‑renewals in the highest‑risk areas. The only reliable way to know your status is to read your renewal notice and call your agent or carrier directly. See how to check below.

Did State Farm leave California?

No — not fully. State Farm stopped writing new home policies in May 2023 and non‑renewed roughly 72,000 higher‑risk California policies in 2024. It remains the state’s largest home insurer, still services existing customers, still pays claims, and still sells auto. More in the California section.

Did Farmers leave Florida?

Partly. In July 2023, Farmers withdrew its Farmers‑branded home, auto, and umbrella policies — about 30% of its Florida book (~100,000 policies). Its subsidiaries, including Bristol West (auto) and Foremost (home), kept operating, so roughly 70% of its Florida customers were unaffected. See the Florida section.

Will my policy be canceled?

An insurer leaving a state usually triggers non‑renewal at your policy’s expiration — not mid‑term cancellation — and most states require 30–120 days’ written notice. Your coverage and your right to file claims continue until that date. That notice window is your time to shop.

What do I do if I’m dropped?

Shop the still‑writing admitted carriers first, then surplus (E&S) lines, then your state’s FAIR Plan as a last resort — and never let coverage lapse. Full playbook in what to do if your insurer leaves.

“Leaving” Explained: Full Exit vs. Pause vs. Non‑Renewal

This is the most important section in the guide, because the word “leaving” gets used loosely and it scares people unnecessarily. There are four very different things a carrier can do, and they affect you differently.

• Full market exit. The carrier stops selling that line entirely and non‑renews every affected policy as it expires. This is the rarest outcome. Example: Farmers withdrawing its Farmers‑branded lines from Florida, or Lexington (AIG) leaving Florida’s high‑value market.
• Stopped writing new policies. The carrier won’t take new customers but keeps renewing most existing ones and keeps paying claims. Example: State Farm and Allstate in California. If you’re already covered, you’re usually fine — but you may not be able to add a new home.
• Targeted non‑renewals. The carrier keeps operating but declines to renew policies in the highest‑risk ZIP codes when they expire. Example: State Farm’s ~72,000 California non‑renewals. This is the situation that hits real customers hardest, because you must find replacement coverage.
• Capping or limiting. The carrier throttles how many new policies it writes per month rather than exiting. Example: Farmers’ California cap, which it later loosened and ultimately removed altogether.

The reassuring through‑line: in every category except a true full exit, existing policyholders generally keep their coverage and their claims protection until renewal. Even in a full exit, you typically get months of notice. “Leaving” is rarely a sudden cancellation. For the mechanics of what to do when a non‑renewal letter arrives, see our companion guide on home insurance non‑renewal and what to do if you’re dropped.

California: The Wildfire Pullback

California is the epicenter of the “stopped writing new policies” story, driven by catastrophic wildfire losses and a rate‑approval system shaped by Proposition 103. The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires (the Palisades and Eaton fires) caused an estimated $25–30 billion in insured losses and intensified every pressure already on the market.

Who pulled back

State Farm stopped accepting new home applications in May 2023, citing construction‑cost inflation, catastrophe exposure, and reinsurance costs, then non‑renewed roughly 72,000 policies in 2024. Under a settlement still moving through final approval in 2026, it received an emergency interim rate increase of about 17% on homeowners and roughly 32.8% on rental dwellings, and it remains the state’s largest home insurer. Allstate paused new home and condo business and has signaled it intends to re‑enter once it can use catastrophe modeling and reinsurance costs in its rate filings. The Hartford, AIG, Chubb, and Tokio Marine reduced new business, particularly in wildfire‑exposed and high‑value segments. Kemper exited the preferred home and auto market entirely.

Who is still writing

This is the part that gets buried in the headlines: a large number of carriers are still accepting California homeowners. AAA / CSAA (the state’s No. 3 insurer) is staying and has actively written more high‑hazard policies than regulators required. Mercury is growing its high‑risk book and was, along with CSAA, among the first carriers to receive a rate increase (about 6.9% each) under Commissioner Lara’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy in exchange for writing more in wildfire‑distressed areas. Farmers never fully halted — it capped new policies, raised the cap, reopened condo, renters, and umbrella lines, and in November 2025 eliminated the homeowners cap entirely while filing for roughly a 7% rate increase tied to the new framework. Travelers announced in April 2026 that it would expand California homeowners availability, the first major new commitment from a top‑10 carrier since the fires. Liberty Mutual writes selectively, and high‑value specialists such as Chubb, AIG Private Client, and PURE still write some high‑net‑worth homes. (Regarding the common questions: AAA/CSAA is expanding, not leaving; USAA has limited some California homeowners business but continues serving its members.)

The FAIR Plan surge and Prop 103 context

As private carriers retreated, the California FAIR Plan — the fire‑only insurer of last resort — ballooned, hitting a record of roughly 668,600 policies by late 2025 after enrollment jumped about 43% between September 2024 and December 2025. Growth has since slowed sharply — only about 16,000 new policies were added in the first quarter of 2026, versus 35,000–50,000 a quarter in the prior couple of years — a sign the private‑market re‑entry efforts may be starting to take some pressure off. After the LA fires, the plan required a $1 billion special assessment from member insurers in February 2025, its first such assessment since 1994, and the FAIR Plan itself is now seeking an average 29% rate increase effective October 2026 to rebuild its claims‑paying capacity. The state’s response is Insurance Commissioner Lara’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy, which lets insurers use forward‑looking catastrophe models and reinsurance costs in rate filings in exchange for writing more policies in distressed, high‑risk areas — the regulatory swap meant to coax carriers back. For the broader California consumer‑protection backdrop and authoritative market data, see the California Department of Insurance.

Florida: From Exodus to Stabilization

Florida’s story is the opposite of a worsening crisis — it’s a recovery story, and that’s the most up‑to‑date thing to understand about the state in 2026.

How it got bad

Hurricane losses, runaway litigation, and assignment‑of‑benefits (AOB) abuse pushed multiple Florida carriers into insolvency in 2021–2022 and drove several to exit. Farmers withdrew its Farmers‑branded home, auto, and umbrella lines in July 2023; AIG/Lexington left the high‑value market; and carriers such as Bankers, FedNat, Southern Fidelity, and United (UPC) exited or failed. Florida became the most expensive state for home insurance, with benchmark premiums commonly cited in the $7,000–$8,500 range per year (estimates vary widely by methodology, coverage amount, and ZIP code).

The 2026 turnaround

Legal and tort reforms enacted in 2022–2023 (notably SB 2‑A in December 2022 and HB 837 in 2023) eliminated one‑way attorney fees, curbed AOB abuse, and shortened claim‑filing windows. The effect on the market has been pronounced:

• Citizens, the state insurer of last resort, is shrinking. Its policy count fell from a peak of roughly 1.42 million in October 2023 to around 336,000 by early 2026 — a 76% decline — as private carriers took policies back through the depopulation program.
• Rates are falling. Citizens approved its first meaningful homeowners rate cut since 2015 — an average 8.7% statewide reduction for 2026, with deeper cuts of roughly 11–14% across South Florida (Broward, Miami‑Dade, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties). Several private insurers filed flat or lower rates as well.
• New competition is entering. Florida regulators have approved roughly 17 new admitted carriers since the reforms took hold, and Slide and other regional insurers absorbed large blocks of departing and Citizens policies — Slide alone was authorized to assume up to about 456,000 Citizens policies in 2025.
• Auto is improving too. The state’s five largest auto insurers (about 78% of the market) have been filing average rate decreases, and Progressive is returning nearly $1 billion in excess profits — about $300 per eligible policyholder — to roughly 2.7 million Florida auto customers in 2026 under the state’s excess‑profits law. That refund means Progressive is not leaving Florida’s auto market; it pulled back some homeowners/property exposure earlier and is now crediting auto customers.

The 2024 hurricane season (Helene and Milton) tested the reformed market, and the private sector largely absorbed it without major new insolvencies. Florida remains pricier than the national average and a bad storm season could stall the trend — but in 2026 the market is moving in more than one direction for the first time in years. For details on storm‑specific coverage, see our hurricane insurance guide for Florida and coastal coverage, and the official Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

Other High‑Risk States: LA, CO, TX & More

The pattern is catastrophe‑driven and increasingly national. Beyond California and Florida, several states saw the steepest pullbacks and price increases heading into 2026 — though a few are now showing their own early signs of stabilization.

• Louisiana. A post‑hurricane crisis pushed roughly 11 insurers into insolvency and led about 11 more (including AIG) to leave the state in 2020–2022. Home insurance rates there rose sharply through 2023–2024, but 2025–2026 has brought the first signs of relief: statewide rate growth slowed to roughly 4–5% in 2025 as reinsurance costs eased, and some carriers (including reciprocal insurers and State Farm’s auto line) have filed for rate decreases. Louisiana still posts some of the highest premiums in the country and leans heavily on its last‑resort insurer.
• Colorado. Wildfire exposure in the Front Range and foothills plus severe hail along the I‑25 corridor drove carriers to scale back. Colorado launched its own FAIR Plan in April 2025, and a U.S. Senate Budget Committee analysis flagged it for a higher non‑renewal rate than Texas.
• Texas. Hail, wind, and severe convective storms keep pressure on rates and appetite, with ongoing non‑renewals in the highest‑risk areas even as most major carriers continue writing.
• North Carolina. Nationwide non‑renewed about 10,000 policies in 2023, and the state saw one of the larger rate increases into 2026, with added strain after Hurricane Helene’s inland flooding.

According to U.S. Senate Budget Committee data, the states with the highest insurance non‑renewal rates have been Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, California, Massachusetts, and Missouri. Around 33 states plus Washington, D.C., now operate a FAIR Plan or equivalent last‑resort program.

Why Are Insurers Leaving?

The reasons are consistent across every affected state, even though the hazard differs (wildfire in California, hurricanes on the Gulf and Southeast coasts, hail in the Plains and Mountain West):

• Catastrophe losses. Billion‑dollar disasters have grown more frequent and more severe, wiping out years of underwriting profit in a single event.
• Soaring reinsurance costs. Insurers buy their own backstop coverage (reinsurance), and its price climbed sharply from 2023–2025, squeezing carriers that write in catastrophe‑exposed states — though reinsurance pricing has begun easing in 2026 as capital has flowed back into the market.
• Rebuild‑cost inflation. Higher labor and material costs — with possible added pressure from tariffs on imported lumber, steel, and aluminum — raise the cost of every claim.
• Rate regulation. Where approved rates lag the real cost of risk, carriers pull back. California’s Prop 103 process and Florida’s pre‑reform litigation environment are the two most‑cited examples — and Florida’s reforms show how changing the rules can reverse the trend.

Is YOUR Insurer Leaving? How to Check

Headlines describe statewide averages; your situation is specific to your carrier, your ZIP code, and your policy type. Here’s how to find out where you actually stand:

• Read your renewal notice carefully. A non‑renewal is a distinct document from a renewal offer or a rate‑increase notice. Look for the words “non‑renewal” and the effective date — that date is your deadline to replace coverage.
• Call your agent or carrier directly. Ask plainly: “Are you renewing my policy, and are you still writing new business in my area?” Get the answer in writing if you can.
• Watch the mail closely if you’re in a high‑risk ZIP. Wildfire, coastal, and high‑hail areas are where non‑renewals concentrate. Don’t ignore an unfamiliar letter from your insurer.
• Check your state Department of Insurance. State DOIs publish market data, complaint records, and lists of carriers writing in your area, and they can tell you your rights and notice periods.

What to Do If Your Insurer Leaves

If you receive a non‑renewal — or your carrier exits — work through your options in this order. The goal is the broadest coverage at the lowest cost, with the FAIR Plan as a genuine last resort.

A few rules that protect you in every scenario:

• Never let coverage lapse. If you have a mortgage and your policy lapses, your lender can buy “force‑placed” coverage that is far more expensive and protects only the lender, not you.
• Start early. Use the full non‑renewal notice window (often 30–120 days) to compare quotes rather than scrambling at the last minute.
• Compare on coverage, not just price. Match dwelling limits, deductibles (especially separate wind/hurricane or wildfire deductibles), and exclusions before you switch.

For the step‑by‑step replacement process, read our companion guide on what to do if you’re dropped, and don’t overlook hidden homeowners coverages you may be missing when you rebuild your policy. If a move affects your auto coverage too, see 15 ways to lower your car insurance and how to compare cheap car insurance quotes for 2026. Where flood is a concern, review our Wright Flood insurance review, since standard home policies exclude flood. Consumer advocates at United Policyholders and the Insurance Information Institute also publish free, state‑specific guidance.

Are Insurers Coming Back? (2026 Outlook)

Cautiously, yes — the market is no longer moving in only one direction. In California, Farmers eliminated its homeowners cap entirely in November 2025 and filed for further expansion under the state’s new framework; Mercury and CSAA were among the first carriers approved for rate increases (about 6.9% each) in exchange for writing more high‑risk policies; and Travelers committed in April 2026 to expand homeowners availability, the first big top‑10 re‑entry signal since the 2025 fires. Even the FAIR Plan’s own numbers hint at easing pressure — its enrollment growth slowed sharply in early 2026 — though the FAIR Plan is also seeking a roughly 29% rate increase for October 2026 to rebuild its finances after the fires. In Florida, the reform‑driven recovery is further along: Citizens is shrinking, rates are falling, around 17 new carriers have entered, and auto insurers are even issuing refunds. Louisiana, too, is showing its first real signs of relief as reinsurance costs ease.

The honest caveat: recovery is fragile and uneven. A severe wildfire or hurricane season could pause re‑entry and reverse rate relief, and high‑risk ZIP codes will stay hard to insure even as statewide averages improve. The direction is encouraging; the timeline is not guaranteed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which insurance companies are leaving California in 2026?

No major insurer is fully exiting California in 2026. State Farm and Allstate are still not writing new home policies, and several carriers (Kemper, and to a degree Hartford, AIG, Chubb, and Tokio Marine) pulled back. But AAA/CSAA, Mercury, and Liberty Mutual continue writing; Farmers eliminated its homeowners cap entirely in November 2025; and Travelers committed to expand in April 2026.

Did State Farm pull out of California?

No, not fully. State Farm stopped writing new home policies in May 2023 and non‑renewed about 72,000 high‑risk policies in 2024, but it remains California’s largest home insurer, still renews many existing customers, still pays claims, and still sells auto.

Did Farmers leave Florida?

Partly. In July 2023 Farmers withdrew its Farmers‑branded home, auto, and umbrella policies — roughly 30% of its Florida book (~100,000 policies). Its subsidiaries Bristol West (auto) and Foremost (home) stayed, so about 70% of its Florida customers were unaffected.

What happens to my policy if my insurer leaves the state?

In most cases your policy is non‑renewed at its expiration date rather than canceled mid‑term, and you typically receive 30–120 days’ written notice. Your coverage and claim rights continue until that date, giving you a window to find replacement coverage.

Can I keep my policy if the company pulls out?

If the carrier merely stopped writing new business, existing customers usually keep their policies and renew normally. If the carrier is fully exiting that line or non‑renewing your specific high‑risk policy, you’ll need to replace it by the non‑renewal date — but you won’t be left uncovered overnight.

Which companies are still writing new home insurance in California?

As of 2026, carriers still accepting California homeowners include AAA/CSAA, Mercury, Farmers (which eliminated its homeowners cap entirely in November 2025), Liberty Mutual selectively, and Travelers (expanding as of April 2026). High‑value specialists such as Chubb, AIG Private Client, and PURE write selectively. Appetite varies by ZIP code, so quote several.

Is Florida becoming uninsurable?

No — the opposite is happening in 2026. After 2022–2023 reforms, Florida’s market is stabilizing: Citizens shrank from about 1.42 million policies to roughly 336,000, around 17 new carriers entered, and rates began falling for the first time since 2015. It remains expensive, but availability is improving.

Why are insurers leaving high‑risk states?

Four reasons drive it: rising catastrophe losses (wildfire, hurricane, hail), sharply higher reinsurance costs, rebuild‑cost inflation, and rate‑approval systems that can lag the true cost of risk. When approved rates can’t keep up with losses, carriers pause or pull back.

What should I do if my insurer drops me?

Shop still‑writing admitted carriers first, then surplus/E&S lines, then your state’s FAIR Plan (paired with a DIC policy) as a last resort. Use your full non‑renewal notice period, compare coverage rather than just price, and never let coverage lapse if you have a mortgage.

Are insurance companies coming back to these states?

Some are. In California, Farmers eliminated its homeowners cap in November 2025 and Travelers committed to expand in April 2026; in Florida, around 17 new carriers have entered and rates are easing; and even Louisiana is seeing its first rate relief as reinsurance costs decline. Re‑entry is real but fragile — a severe storm or fire season could slow it, and the highest‑risk ZIP codes remain hard to insure.