---
title: "California Earthquake Insurance Market Share (2025) — Lapidar"
url: https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/earthquake/
description: "The 10 largest earthquake insurers and groups in California by 2025 direct written premium, led by the California Earthquake Authority, with 2024 share and change. Source: California Department of Insurance."
last_modified: "2026-10-14"
source: getlapidar.com (HTML converted to Markdown at the edge)
---

Data · California · Earthquake · Calendar year 2025

# California earthquake insurance market share (2025)

Who writes earthquake premium in California, from the California Department of Insurance’s 2025 market share report, with each group’s 2024 share for comparison, and where the California Earthquake Authority fits.

Compiled by Lapidar · Source: California Department of Insurance · Retrieved October 14, 2026

## Key figures

- Licensed insurers wrote $2.23 billion of earthquake direct premium in California in 2025, down 2.0% from $2.28 billion in 2024. That is 1.94% of all property and casualty premium in the state. 60 groups and unaffiliated insurers wrote earthquake premium.
- The ten largest wrote 92.21% of it (90.22% for the ten largest in 2024); the five largest wrote 79.15%.
- The California Earthquake Authority was the largest in both years, with 42.39% of earthquake premium in 2025 (38.72% in 2024) and $947.3 million, more than three times the $295.2 million of the second largest, FM Group.
- The other 59 groups and insurers together wrote $1,287.5 million, 57.61% of the line.
- The largest share gain in the top ten from 2024 was California Earthquake Authority (38.72% → 42.39%, +3.67 pp), followed by GeoVera Holdings Group (5.37% → 6.90%, +1.53 pp). The largest decline was Zurich Insurance Group (8.51% → 5.32%, −3.19 pp), followed by FM Group (13.75% → 13.21%, −0.54 pp).
- The same ten groups made up the top ten in 2024, in the same order except that GeoVera Holdings Group and Zurich Insurance Group swapped fourth and fifth place.
- Five of the ten write earthquake premium in California through a single company (California Earthquake Authority, Palomar Holdings Group, Golden Bear Insurance Company, ICW Group and AXA Insurance Group); Chubb Limited Group has the most companies writing it, 9.

**What these figures are not.** Written premium is dollars, not policies or insured homes and buildings, and the report counts neither. The department reports earthquake as one line: it does not split residential from commercial earthquake premium, so this table cannot tell you who leads in either.

## Top 10 earthquake insurers and groups, 2025

**California, 2025. Earthquake (Line 12), direct written premium, licensed insurers, by the group code the department assigns; the California Earthquake Authority is listed by the department under its own company code. Companies: insurers in the group with earthquake premium in 2025. Premium in $ million (exact dollars in tooltip). Source: CDI.**

| Rank | Group | Companies | 2025 $M | 2025 share | 2024 share | Change |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | California Earthquake Authority | 1 | 947.3 | 42.39% | 38.72% | +3.67 pp |
| 2 | FM Group | 2 | 295.2 | 13.21% | 13.75% | −0.54 pp |
| 3 | Palomar Holdings Group | 1 | 253.3 | 11.33% | 9.88% | +1.45 pp |
| 4 | GeoVera Holdings Group | 2 | 154.1 | 6.90% | 5.37% | +1.53 pp |
| 5 | Zurich Insurance Group | 4 | 119.0 | 5.32% | 8.51% | −3.19 pp |
| 6 | Golden Bear Insurance Company | 1 | 95.0 | 4.25% | 4.60% | −0.35 pp |
| 7 | Chubb Limited Group | 9 | 82.6 | 3.70% | 3.73% | −0.03 pp |
| 8 | Travelers Group | 4 | 46.2 | 2.07% | 2.19% | −0.12 pp |
| 9 | ICW Group | 1 | 36.8 | 1.64% | 2.01% | −0.37 pp |
| 10 | AXA Insurance Group | 1 | 31.2 | 1.40% | 1.48% | −0.08 pp |
|  | Top 10 combined |  | 2,060.7 | 92.21% |  |  |
|  | All 60 groups and unaffiliated insurers |  | 2,234.8 | 100.00% |  |  |

Change is in percentage points, 2024 to 2025. Each group is compared with the same group code in the department’s 2024 report.

## The California Earthquake Authority in these figures

**How the department lists it.** In the 2025 detail file the California Earthquake Authority appears under its own NAIC company code, 10779, as both the group and the single company, and it is among the licensed insurers in the file. All of its premium in the file is earthquake premium: its $947.3 million on Line 12 is also its all-lines total, which places it 25th of 232 groups and unaffiliated insurers across all property and casualty lines, the last place in the department’s Top 25 groups table. We rank it here with the groups, as the department lists it.

**What the authority says it is.** From its own site: “In 1996, the California Legislature went one step further and created the California Earthquake Authority (CEA)—a not-for-profit, publicly managed, privately funded entity.” ([CEA, history](https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/about-cea/cea-history)). It also says: “Today, CEA provides two-thirds of the residential earthquake insurance policies sold in California.” That is the authority’s own count of policies, not a figure from the department’s report, and we have not checked it.

**How its policies are sold.** The authority describes it this way: “CEA partner insurance companies are responsible for selling and servicing CEA policies, which includes processing and underwriting CEA policy applications, billing and collecting premiums on behalf of CEA, maintaining CEA billing records, making changes to existing CEA policies, and investigating and settling CEA claims.” And: “CEA does not offer stand-alone policies. This means that both the residential property policy (homeowners, condo, mobilehome or renters) and the CEA earthquake policy must be issued by the CEA partner insurance company.” ([CEA, how to buy](https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/california-earthquake-insurance-policies/how-to-buy-earthquake-insurance-california); the participating companies are listed on its [participating insurers page](https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/california-earthquake-insurance-policies/participating-residential-insurers-earthquake).) Both pages checked October 14, 2026.

**What that means for this table.** The department reports the premium on those policies under the authority itself, not under the participating companies that sell them, so a participating company’s place here reflects only its own earthquake policies. The table also leaves out earthquake cover written by surplus lines insurers, which are not in the report.

## What this means for agencies

A CEA policy is sold alongside a homeowners, condo, mobilehome or renters policy from the same participating company, and that company bills and collects the premium on the authority’s behalf. For a [personal lines agency](https://getlapidar.com/for/personal-lines-agencies/), that means the earthquake policy comes through the same carrier as the home policy, but it is a separate policy with its own premium. Whether its commission shows up as its own line on the carrier’s [commission statement](https://getlapidar.com/glossary/commission-statement/), and at what rate, depends on that carrier’s [commission schedule](https://getlapidar.com/glossary/commission-schedule/); the department’s report says nothing about commission.

Outside the authority, a group is not a single carrier. The Companies column counts the insurers in each group that wrote earthquake premium in California in 2025, and statements usually run per company. Homeowners premium by group, for comparison: [California homeowners insurance market share](https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/homeowners/).

## Methodology

- **Line.** Line 12, earthquake, as the department reports it. The report lists it separately from homeowners (Line 4); we do not add the two.
- **Measure.** [Direct written premium](https://getlapidar.com/glossary/written-vs-earned-premium/) of licensed (admitted) insurers in California, before reinsurance, from the department’s insurer detail file. Surplus lines insurers are not in the report.
- **Groups.** Insurers are grouped under the group code the department assigns in its detail file; we do not group insurers ourselves. An insurer outside any group, such as the California Earthquake Authority or Golden Bear Insurance Company, appears on its own under its company code. Group names are shown in plain form; the department’s abbreviated name is in each row’s tooltip.
- **Checks.** The 2025 and 2024 earthquake totals match the department’s premium distribution reports for those years to the dollar. 4 of the ten have their own page in the department’s Top 25 groups report; for 2 of them the earthquake premium there matches the detail file to the dollar, and for Chubb Limited Group it differs by $1,068,238 and Travelers Group it differs by $35. The group pages in that report use a slightly different state earthquake total than the premium distribution report. We use the detail file, whose total matches the premium distribution report. The authority’s rank across all lines matches the Top 25 groups table. Shares are our calculation, rounded to 0.01 percentage point.
- **Change vs 2024.** Uses the same group code in the department’s 2024 report (revised September 2025). If insurers moved between groups, the change reflects that, not only new or lost business. The report gives figures, not reasons; this page does not explain why shares moved.
- **What we don’t reproduce.** Only the top ten. Loss data, insurer-level detail and the full report are on the department’s site.

## Sources

- California Department of Insurance, Rate Specialist Bureau, [2025 California Property & Casualty Market Share Report](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/120-company/04-mrktshare/2025/): detail file [MktShrDataPC2025.xlsx](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/120-company/04-mrktshare/2025/upload/MktShrDataPC2025.xlsx) (sheet “All Individual Lines”), [PrmLssDist2025.pdf](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/120-company/04-mrktshare/2025/upload/PrmLssDist2025.pdf) and [Top25grps2025.pdf](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/120-company/04-mrktshare/2025/upload/Top25grps2025.pdf). Retrieved October 14, 2026.
- 2024 figures: the department’s 2024 report, detail file [MktShrDataPC2024RevSep0825.xlsx](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/120-company/04-mrktshare/2024/upload/MktShrDataPC2024RevSep0825.xlsx) and [PrmLssDist2024.pdf](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/120-company/04-mrktshare/2024/upload/PrmLssDist2024.pdf).
- Context on the authority: California Earthquake Authority, [CEA history](https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/about-cea/cea-history), [How to buy earthquake insurance](https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/california-earthquake-insurance-policies/how-to-buy-earthquake-insurance-california) and [Participating insurers](https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/california-earthquake-insurance-policies/participating-residential-insurers-earthquake). Checked October 14, 2026.

The department’s [site policy](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/privacy-policy/) treats its content as public domain unless otherwise indicated. The report notes “Source: NAIC Database”; we publish only factual figures from the department’s report, with citation. Lapidar is not affiliated with the California Department of Insurance or the California Earthquake Authority. Check the source before relying on a figure.

On this page

1. [Key figures](https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/earthquake/#key)
2. [Top 10](https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/earthquake/#top10)
3. [California Earthquake Authority](https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/earthquake/#cea)
4. [For agencies](https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/earthquake/#agencies)
5. [Methodology](https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/earthquake/#methodology)
6. [Sources](https://getlapidar.com/data/pc-carriers-by-state/california/earthquake/#sources)

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## Reconciling statements is the hard part.

The California Earthquake Authority wrote 42.39% of California earthquake premium in 2025, through the companies that sell its policies. Lapidar checks their commission statements against your book and lists missing, short and duplicate commission. [See a sample report](https://getlapidar.com/sample-report/).

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