USAA to hike insurance rates by double-digits for 265,000 homeowners

Megan Fan Munce
San Francisco Chronicle
(TNS)

Oct. 29—USAA’s two largest home insurance subsidiaries were approved this month to raise rates for homeowners and condominium owners by double digits starting at the end of the year.

USAA is the sixth largest home insurer in California, representing about 5.61% of the market as of 2023. Its largest subsidiary, known also as USAA, was approved to raise rates at the beginning of the month by 16% for homeowners and 31% for condo owners. Its second largest subsidiary, USAA Casualty Insurance Company, was approved last week to raise rates by 25% for homeowners and 40% for condominium owners, filings with the California Department of Insurance show.

Together, the rate increases will affect more than 234,000 homeowners and 31,000 condo owners across the state. USAA membership is exclusive to members of the military and their families.

For both subsidiaries, these are the largest increases in at least six years.

Casualty Insurance Company, which insured about 1.9% of the total California homeowners market in 2023, hasn’t written new homeowners policies in California since April 2023 due to “concerns with rate inadequacy,” it disclosed in filings. (Casualty Insurance Company does allow its existing renters insurance customers to sign up for a home insurance policy if they purchase a home, so long as the new home meets their underwriting standards, according to filings.) USAA’s largest subsidiary, which insures just over 2% of market, continues to write new policies, but won’t accept homes with a wildfire risk score greater than one, it noted in filings. Different insurance companies use different risk scores, with ranges anywhere from 1 to 10 to 1 to 100, making a score of one extremely low.

Neither subsidiary indicated any plans to engage in block nonrenewals of existing customers with wildfire risk.

Individual home and condo owners with Casualty Insurance Company will see increases ranging from 12% to 48%, according to the filings. Customers can expect to see the change at their first renewal date starting in December.

USAA’s increase is not slated to start affecting customers until mid-February, filings show. Its increases will range from 4% to 37%.

Casualty Insurance Company last altered its rates in August 2023, when it increased homeowners rates by 2.3% but decreased rates for condo owners by 5.8%, according to its filings. USAA meanwhile raised rates by about 7% for both home and condo owners in May 2023.

USAA General Indemnity Company, a smaller subsidiary of USAA, is set to raise average rates by 30% for homeowners and 60% for condo owners starting in November. Garrison Property & Casualty Insurance Company, USAA’s smallest insurer, was also approved to raise rates by an average of about 27% for homeowners and 25% for condo owners starting in 2025. Each insurer represents less than 1% of the overall California homeowners market.

A spokesperson for USAA did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Reach Megan Fan Munce: megan.munce@sfchronicle.com

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