California’s FAIR Plan carried 668,609 policies as of December 2025, up 146 percent since September 2022, according to background prepared for the California Assembly Insurance Committee’s January 2026 oversight hearing.Â
Old Harbor Insurance fields comparisons between the FAIR Plan and a surplus-lines carrier like SageSure from homeowners in exactly that position: declined by the standard market and unsure which fallback fits their property.
SageSure entered California’s surplus-lines homeowners market in 2024 through a reciprocal exchange called SURE, and the two options have little in common once a homeowner gets past both sitting outside standard admitted coverage.Â
One is a state-mandated insurer of last resort with a fire-only policy; the other is a private, non-admitted market with broader coverage and its own set of consumer protections. A claim is the wrong moment to find out which protections apply to which policy, which is usually when the difference shows up.
How SageSure and the FAIR Plan Are Structured Differently
| Dimension | SageSure (Surplus Lines) | California FAIR Plan |
| Admitted status | Non-admitted (surplus lines) | Admitted, state-mandated |
| Rate and form approval | Set by the carrier, no CDI pre-approval | Filed with and approved by the CDI |
| Guarantee fund backing | Not covered by the state guarantee fund | Backed by member-insurer assessments |
| Coverage scope | Broader multi-peril homeowners forms | Fire, smoke, and related perils only |
| Typical use case | Homes declined by admitted carriers | Fire-only coverage of last resort |
SageSure Operates as a Non-Admitted Surplus Lines Program
SageSure isn’t itself a licensed California insurer. It’s a program administrator that underwrites and services policies on behalf of carrier partners, including SURE, a Demotech-rated reciprocal exchange that SageSure describes as one of the first to write California homeowners coverage on a surplus lines, or non-admitted, basis, according to SageSure’s own announcement of its California entry.Â
Non-admitted means the carrier isn’t licensed by the California Department of Insurance and sets its own rates and policy forms outside that approval process.
The FAIR Plan Is California’s Admitted Insurer of Last Resort
The FAIR Plan is an admitted, state-created pool that every insurer doing business in California has to participate in, and its rates go through the same CDI filing process as standard carriers do.Â
That admitted status is also why the FAIR Plan can pass along a shortfall: the CDI approved a $1 billion assessment on member insurers in February 2025 to cover claims from the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires, per the same Assembly Committee background material.
What Each One Covers, and What It Costs
The FAIR Plan Covers Fire Only, With Caps That Just Changed
A standard FAIR Plan policy still covers fire, smoke, and directly related damage, nothing else, leaving a second policy to pick up liability, theft, and water exposure the FAIR Plan was never built to touch. Its residential dwelling cap sits at $3.3 million, while a commercial or high-value cap of $20 million per structure took effect in July 2025 and is set to sunset in 2028.
The FAIR Plan’s own exposure has grown alongside its policy count, reaching $724 billion by the Assembly Committee’s count, and it announced a 29.1 percent average rate increase taking effect in October 2026, according to KQED’s coverage of the rate hike.
Surplus Lines Coverage Is Broader, but Regulated on Different Terms
A surplus lines carrier sets its own rates and forms rather than filing them with the CDI for approval, under a framework the Surplus Line Association of California administers on the state’s behalf.Â
That freedom lets a program like SageSure write a fuller homeowners policy instead of a fire-only one, but it also means the California Insurance Guarantee Association, which pays claims up to $500,000 if an admitted insurer fails, doesn’t extend to a non-admitted policy at all.
Why More California Homeowners Are Ending Up in Surplus Lines
California’s surplus-lines homeowners market has moved past its wildfire-driven origins. New policies grew from roughly 50,000 in 2023 to about 320,000 in 2025, and average wildfire exposure scores on those policies fell during that same stretch, according to Insurance Journal’s reporting on the shift.Â
Growth is now concentrated in ordinary suburban ZIP codes rather than the highest-hazard areas, driven by admitted carriers pulling back capacity broadly rather than wildfire risk specifically.
That shift matters here because a growing share of the households comparing SageSure against the FAIR Plan were never in a high fire-hazard zone to begin with.Â
A homeowner in a moderate-risk suburb who gets non-renewed today competes for admitted capacity against higher-risk properties, and surplus lines or the FAIR Plan can end up the only options left, regardless of the property’s hazard score.
How Old Harbor Insurance Helps
Placing a surplus lines policy requires a licensed surplus lines broker to document that the admitted market was checked first, and Old Harbor runs that search while also pricing out what a FAIR Plan and supplemental policy would cost for the same property.Â
Reviewing how a claim gets handled carries extra weight with a non-admitted carrier, since no state guarantee fund is standing behind it the way one would be for an admitted policy.
Carrier appetite in the surplus lines space shifts as new capacity enters California, and SageSure’s own carrier partnerships have expanded since 2024 as one example of that movement.Â
A property that only qualified for the FAIR Plan a year ago sometimes has a broader surplus-lines option available now, and renewal is the natural point to check whether that’s changed.
Compare Your California Coverage Options
FAIR Plan and surplus lines coverage solve different problems, and picking between them works better as a side-by-side comparison than a guess based on whichever quote arrives first.Â
Contact Old Harbor Insurance to walk through both options for a specific property, or request a quote to see current pricing from admitted and non-admitted carriers alike.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a SageSure policy backed by the same state guarantee fund that protects admitted carrier policyholders?
A SageSure policy, written through a non-admitted surplus lines carrier, is not backed by the California Insurance Guarantee Association the way an admitted insurer’s policy is.Â
If a non-admitted carrier became insolvent, a policyholder would have to pursue a claim against that company directly rather than through the state fund. That’s why a surplus line carrier’s financial rating deserves closer scrutiny than an admitted carrier’s would.
Does the FAIR Plan’s $20 million commercial cap apply to a large single-family home?
The $20 million cap applies to the FAIR Plan’s commercial and high-value property program, not a standard single-family residential policy, which is capped separately at $3.3 million in dwelling coverage.Â
A high-value primary residence that exceeds the residential cap may need to apply under the commercial program or add excess coverage elsewhere. An agent can confirm which cap applies before a policy is bound on an unusually large home.
Can a homeowner buy a SageSure policy directly, or does it require going through an agent?
Surplus lines coverage in California has to be placed through a licensed surplus lines broker, who documents that the admitted market declined or couldn’t match the coverage before the policy is written.Â
That diligent-search requirement is why a SageSure policy can’t be bought directly, unlike a FAIR Plan application, which a homeowner can sometimes submit without an agent. An independent agent with surplus lines access handles that placement step as part of getting the quote.
Does choosing a surplus lines policy over the FAIR Plan cause problems with a mortgage lender?
Most mortgage lenders accept a surplus lines policy as long as the coverage amount and perils meet the loan’s insurance requirements, the same standard applied to an admitted policy. A FAIR Plan applicant has to clear that same bar with a second, supplemental policy layered on top, since a fire-only policy by itself usually doesn’t satisfy a lender. Confirming the combined coverage meets the lender’s requirements avoids a delay at closing or renewal.
Does the FAIR Plan’s 2025 assessment on insurers get billed directly to FAIR Plan policyholders?
The assessment approved in 2025 was billed to the admitted insurers that fund the FAIR Plan by law, not directly to FAIR Plan policyholders themselves. Those insurers are allowed to recoup part of an assessment through a temporary statewide policyholder surcharge, which can reach any admitted homeowners policy in California, not just FAIR Plan policies. That surcharge mechanism is separate from the 29.1 percent rate increase the FAIR Plan applied to its own policies.
Does California’s wildfire non-renewal moratorium apply to a surplus lines homeowners policy?
Personal-lines surplus placements, including homeowners coverage, generally retain California’s cancellation and non-renewal protections, unlike commercial surplus lines policies, which are exempt from that oversight. That distinction means a SageSure homeowners policy isn’t entirely outside state consumer protection just because it’s non-admitted. A surplus lines broker can confirm which specific protections carry over for a given policy type.
Does a SageSure policy still require a separate difference-in-conditions policy the way a FAIR Plan policy does?
A SageSure homeowners policy is typically written as a broader multi-peril form covering fire, liability, theft, and water damage in one policy, unlike the FAIR Plan’s fire-only coverage. That structure usually removes the need for a separate difference-in-conditions policy, which exists specifically to fill the gaps a fire-only FAIR Plan policy leaves. Confirming exactly which perils a specific SageSure form still matters, since surplus lines forms vary by carrier.