First Ever Wildfire Resilience Insurance Policy Written and Placed

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Willis, a business of Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ:WTW), along with the UC Berkeley School of Law Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE), announced today a first-of-its-kind insurance policy that takes into account nature-based efforts to mitigate fire risk. Structured by Willis, the $2.5 million wildfire resilience insurance coverage has been developed for Tahoe Donner Association (Tahoe Donner), a private homeowners association in Truckee, California. The insurance is underwritten by Globe Underwriting, an internationally recognized insurer.

In collaboration with CLEE’s Climate Risk Initiative, the wildfire resilience insurance policy was developed and placed to demonstrate lower premium pricing and improved availability where ecological forest practices have taken place. Such techniques include tree thinning to improve the health and growth of the remaining trees and planned fires to clear out flammable vegetation, both proven to reduce wildfire risk and make forests healthier. Tahoe Donner was selected as the customer for the wildfire resilience insurance policy due to its cutting-edge Forest Health Management Program, which began in 1992 and evolved from efforts to create a healthy forest to mitigating climate and wildfire impacts.

Learn more about this innovative project here from the Technical Report and Press Release.

Additional Authors: David Williams, Kristen Wilson, Jason Hadjuk, Charlotte Stanley, Claire Wilkinson