Southern California homeowners are navigating one of the most challenging insurance markets in the country. Wildfire risk, carrier withdrawals, and rising premiums have left many property owners searching for real private coverage alternatives — and Solara Insurance has become one of the names coming up in those searches.

Old Harbor Insurance works with specialty programs like Solara and 81 carrier relationships across California, helping Southern California homeowners find coverage that fits their property and risk profile — including in areas where admitted carriers no longer write.

What Is Solara Insurance?

Is Solara Insurance a legitimate company?

Yes. Solara Insurance — formally Solara Specialty Insurance Solutions — is a California-licensed Excess and Surplus lines insurance brokerage (CA License #6018206). The company offers an exclusive non-admitted HO-3 homeowners product purpose-built for California’s evolving risk landscape. 

Solara is backed by one of Florida’s largest homeowners insurers, holding a Financial Stability Rating of A (Exceptional) from Demotech, Inc., with over $800 million in in-force premium and approximately 200,000 policyholders behind it.

Is Solara an insurance company or a broker?

Solara operates as an E&S lines insurance brokerage offering an exclusive homeowners product through licensed independent agents. The underlying coverage is backed by a financially rated carrier — so while Solara is the distribution platform, the policy itself is supported by an established underwriting partner with 20 years of catastrophe market experience.

What types of insurance does Solara offer?

Solara’s core product is a non-admitted HO-3 homeowners policy for California properties. Coverage is available for primary and secondary residences, with tailored limits and endorsement options based on each property’s specific characteristics. 

Their program focuses specifically on the California homeowners market — with particular emphasis on properties in moderate to high wildfire-risk areas that the standard admitted market has largely stopped writing. For other lines like auto or commercial coverage, an independent agent can pair Solara’s homeowners product with additional carriers to build a complete coverage picture.

Availability and Eligibility in Southern California

Is Solara Insurance available in Southern California?

Yes. Solara is active and writing policies in California today, including Southern California markets. The company was built specifically for California’s risk environment — and Southern California, with its concentration of wildfire-exposed properties and high carrier non-renewal rates, is exactly the market Solara was designed to serve. 

Coverage is accessed through licensed independent agents rather than a direct consumer portal. If you’ve visited their website and encountered a “coming soon” message, that refers to their direct-to-consumer interface — the product is fully available through agents right now.

Will Solara insure homes in wildfire-prone areas?

Yes — and this is one of Solara’s key differentiators. The company uses proprietary wildfire analytics to assess eligibility at the individual property level rather than by ZIP code. Standard admitted carriers have largely retreated from CAL FIRE Tier 2 and Tier 3 Hazard Severity Zones across Southern California. 

Solara’s property-level underwriting approach means a home that has been declined elsewhere based solely on its location may still qualify based on its actual construction, defensible space, and site-specific risk characteristics.

Can I get coverage if traditional insurers have already denied me?

This is exactly what Solara was built for. When admitted carriers decline a property — due to wildfire zone designation, roof age, claims history, or location — the E&S market exists specifically to provide coverage for those risks. 

According to the California Department of Insurance, homeowners who exhaust private market options can turn to the California FAIR Plan, but Solara offers a meaningful step before that — full HO-3 coverage rather than the FAIR Plan’s basic fire-only protection.

What is the California FAIR Plan and how does it compare to Solara?

The California FAIR Plan is a state-mandated last-resort program providing basic fire coverage to homeowners who can’t obtain private insurance. It does not include liability protection, theft, or additional living expenses if your home becomes uninhabitable. Solara writes full HO-3 policies covering all of those components — making it a substantially more comprehensive alternative for homeowners who qualify.

Coverage and Policy Details

What does a Solara homeowners policy cover?

Solara writes HO-3 policies on an open-perils basis, meaning all risks are covered except those specifically excluded. A standard policy covers dwelling protection, other structures, personal property, loss of use, and liability coverage for third-party injury or damage claims. Both primary and secondary homes are eligible, with tailored coverage limits available.

Does Solara cover flood damage?

No — flood coverage is excluded from standard homeowners policies regardless of carrier. Flood insurance is written separately, either through a private carrier or the National Flood Insurance Program via FEMA. If your Southern California property sits in a FEMA-designated Special Flood Hazard Area with a federally-backed mortgage, flood coverage is legally required in addition to your homeowners policy.

What is the difference between admitted and non-admitted insurance in California?

Admitted carriers are regulated under California’s standard rate-filing requirements, and policyholders are protected by the California Insurance Guarantee Association if the carrier becomes insolvent. Non-admitted E&S carriers like Solara are not covered by that guarantee fund, but operate through licensed surplus lines brokers and are subject to state oversight. 

The tradeoff is pricing flexibility — which is why E&S carriers can write wildfire-risk properties that admitted carriers can’t competitively price under Proposition 103.

Pricing and Quotes

How much does homeowners insurance cost in Southern California?

Premiums vary significantly depending on wildfire risk exposure, home rebuild cost, roof age and material, construction type, and prior claims history. The California Department of Insurance’s wildfire insurance data shows how dramatically pricing and availability shift across ZIP codes in high-risk regions. 

Southern California properties in or near CAL FIRE Hazard Severity Zones typically face the widest range of outcomes — some qualifying for competitive specialty rates, others landing on the FAIR Plan without independent agent guidance.

Why is my insurance quote so high?

Southern California rebuild costs have risen sharply due to construction labor and materials inflation tracked by the California Construction Cost Index. Insurance policies are priced on rebuild cost — not market value — so as construction costs climb, dwelling coverage limits and premiums rise with them. Wildfire risk exposure compounds this further, particularly for homes in or adjacent to fire hazard zones.

How do I get a Solara quote in Southern California?

Solara policies are quoted through licensed independent agents with access to their program. The majority of homes can be quoted and bound within minutes. Here’s what to have ready:

  1. Property address — Solara assesses risk at the home level, not the ZIP code
  2. Year built and construction type — frame, masonry, fire-resistant materials
  3. Roof age and material — a primary underwriting factor in wildfire zones
  4. Claims history — typically the last 3–5 years
  5. Desired coverage limits — based on your home’s rebuild cost, not market value

What mitigation improvements can lower my premium?

Solara offers credits for home hardening measures including fire-resistant roofing, defensible space compliance, and ember-resistant vents. If you’ve made improvements in the last few years, documenting them before your quote can result in meaningfully lower premiums compared to an unimproved property in the same area.

Why Southern California Homeowners Are Searching for New Insurers

Why are insurers pulling back from Southern California?

Major admitted carriers have reduced or paused new homeowners policies across Southern California due to wildfire losses, rising reinsurance costs, and construction inflation. The NOAA Billion-Dollar Disaster Database documents the scale of recent catastrophe losses nationally, and California’s wildfire events represent some of the costliest in that record. 

Research from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners confirms that climate-driven catastrophe exposure is fundamentally reshaping homeowners insurance markets — with Southern California among the most acutely affected regions.

Why are surplus lines insurers growing in Southern California?

As admitted carriers have pulled back, E&S insurers have expanded their share of California’s property market. Proposition 103 restricts how quickly admitted carriers can adjust rates in response to rising risk — making it difficult for them to write wildfire-exposed properties profitably. 

E&S carriers like Solara aren’t subject to those constraints, giving them the pricing flexibility to underwrite risks the admitted market has abandoned. This isn’t a workaround — it’s exactly the role the surplus lines market was designed to fill.

How Old Harbor Insurance Helps Southern California Homeowners

Accessing Solara requires a licensed agent with access to their program. Old Harbor Insurance works with 81 carrier relationships — including admitted markets, surplus lines programs, and specialty insurers like Solara — and can compare your full range of options in a single conversation. 

For homeowners facing non-renewal, ZIP code-level declines, or FAIR Plan dependency, Old Harbor’s independent access means you’re not limited to one carrier’s underwriting appetite. Because Old Harbor is obligated to no single carrier, the goal is always finding the best available fit for your specific property — not pushing a preferred product.

Get a Southern California Quote Today

The private market for Southern California homeowners insurance is tighter than it’s been in decades — but specialty programs exist precisely for this environment.

Contact Old Harbor Insurance at (951) 297-9740, email info@oldharbor.com, or get a quote online in just a few minutes. A licensed agent will review your property and come back with real options — including Solara and any other programs that fit your risk and budget.