Few voices for policyholder pursuits and their rights have remained as constant, credible, and compassionate as Amy Bach and her workforce at United Policyholders. I spent yesterday afternoon in Sonoma, California, talking with Amy, various her present and former skilled employees members, volunteers who’ve labored the Maui and Los Angeles wildfires, and members of her very novice storage band. Amy Bach sings whereas taking part in the drums.
Because the founder and Government Director of United Policyholders (UP), Amy has spent over three a long time constructing a nonprofit that has develop into a go-to useful resource for insurance coverage policyholders navigating steps of restoration within the aftermath of disaster. I had the pleasure of introducing her for an award again in 2017, which I famous in Amy Bach Honored by the Florida Affiliation for Insurance coverage Reform.
After spending the afternoon along with her and her workforce of employees, associates, and volunteers, I was reminded of simply how important her management has been.
From the lethal wildfires that scorched Northern California in 2017 to the heart-wrenching devastation in Maui in 2023—and now, the 2025 fires throughout Los Angeles—Amy and her workforce have constantly proven up, not simply in phrases, however in motion.
A Decade of Motion: From Santa Rosa to Lahaina to Los Angeles
Within the wake of the 2017 Tubbs Hearth and later the 2018 Camp Hearth, United Policyholders mobilized rapidly with their Roadmap to Restoration® program, providing workshops, clinics, and one-on-one help to information survivors via the complicated claims course of. This initiative, now deployed after nearly each main U.S. wildfire, has helped hundreds of households perceive their insurance coverage insurance policies, keep away from frequent pitfalls, and safe honest compensation from insurers.
UP launched the Wildfire Danger Discount and Asset Safety (WRAP) Initiative. This can be a proactive effort to teach owners on wildfire mitigation whereas advocating for insurance coverage incentives for many who harden their houses. In partnership with the Governor’s Workplace of Emergency Companies and the California Division of Insurance coverage, WRAP has been instrumental in shaping state-level insurance policies to convey insurers again into high-risk areas and make insurance coverage each obtainable and inexpensive.
After the 2023 wildfires in Maui, UP didn’t hesitate. They quickly revealed a Hawaii-specific restoration information, held clinics in Lahaina with prior hearth sufferer volunteers, and advocated towards insurers clawing again authorized settlements from victims. Amy co-authored a strong op-ed urging insurance coverage firms to step again and let hearth survivors rebuild with dignity—incomes reward for as soon as once more placing folks earlier than income. UP’s amicus program helped within the combat to prioritize Hawaiian victims’ losses earlier than insurer subrogation pursuits.
This 12 months, as fires tore via Los Angeles—together with the Palisades and Eaton Fires—UP was there but once more. This time, the stakes had been increased attributable to widespread reviews of lead and poisonous contamination, which insurers had been reluctant to cowl. Amy and her workforce supported grassroots efforts to assemble contamination knowledge, amplified public well being issues, and ensured survivors had the steerage and advocacy they wanted—whether or not in navigating coverage language or preventing unjust denials.
Coverage Change By Persistence
United Policyholders isn’t only a help group—it’s a drive for authorized and legislative change. After the 2017 and 2018 California wildfires, Amy Bach helped form a bundle of pro-policyholder reforms. Because of her efforts, California now ensures prolonged residing expense advantages (as much as 36 months), permits policyholders to mix limits from completely different protection classes, and protects catastrophe victims from shedding protection after they want it most. These legal guidelines didn’t go themselves. They handed as a result of Amy and UP fought for them.
Related efforts have adopted in Hawaii, the place UP urged officers to undertake California’s requirements. In each states, United Policyholders has stepped in because the voice for many who’ve misplaced every part, making certain that insurance coverage doesn’t develop into the second catastrophe after the fireplace.
Listed below are just a few of the subjects we mentioned yesterday:
- How the findings of lead and heavy metals are going to affect policyholders, communities, and insurance coverage firms. There’s a actual concern that many will probably be afraid to rebuild or stay within the current fire-damaged areas absent higher scientific proof that these poisonous substances haven’t been eliminated
- How Proposition 103 has been working and never working within the new age of wildfires.
- Considerations over insurers leaving California for extra worthwhile venues with much less stringent regulation versus being within the largest state insurance coverage market in America.
- State Farm—the current fee listening to, its claims practices and its massive market share of enterprise in California.
- The affect and significance of volunteers who’ve suffered and been via the devastation serving to those that simply suffered the same destiny.
- Insurance coverage affordability, Fannie Mae alternative price necessities and residential possession affordability.
- Whether or not California ought to undertake a unique working technique than the California Truthful Plan and the way different states function insurers of final resort.
Some insurance coverage firm commentators assume that every one policyholders do is bash the insurance coverage trade. These discussions had been about how one can assist the insurance coverage product and assist help the insurance coverage system in order that policyholders are higher served and guarded. Being pro-policyholder doesn’t imply being anti-insurer.
Why United Policyholders Deserves Our Assist
Amy Bach and United Policyholders have stood the check of time for over thirty years—not simply due to what they do, however due to how they do it. They present up, they pay attention, they educate, they combat, and they’re revered. Their work is rooted in compassion however pushed by deep authorized and sensible information of how insurance coverage works (and the way it typically doesn’t).
They don’t chase headlines. They chase outcomes.
Their affect is seen in each catastrophe zone they enter. Survivors depart UP occasions not solely with brochures and pattern letters however with hope. With confidence. With readability.
They’ve elevated the rights of policyholders throughout the nation and set an ordinary for what nonprofit advocacy with outcomes ought to seem like.
So, should you’re trying to give again—to strengthen the spine of policyholder advocacy in insurance coverage—supporting United Policyholders is a superb alternative.
Thought For The Day
“When catastrophe strikes, insurance coverage is meant to be the protection internet. However too typically, the online has holes. Our mission is to ensure it holds.”
—Amy Bach
Music of The Day
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay
