2026 Best's Rankings: California Overtakes Florida as Largest Fire & Allied Lines State
OLDWICK, N.J. //BestWire// - California surpassed Florida as the largest fire and allied lines state in 2025, according to a new Best's Rankings report.
Direct premiums written by a combined 508 companies increased 1.7% to $11.3 billion in California. Florida slipped to No. 2 after premiums declined 8.6%. Its 490 writers combined for $11.17 billion in DPW.
Texas remained the third-largest state for U.S. fire and allied lines. Its leading writer, Sompo Holdings US Group, held the lowest market share of any top state writer, according to AM Best.
Sompo's share of fire and allied lines was 6.4% of the $10.28 billion in fire and allied DPW in Texas. The second-largest writer in Texas, Chubb INA Group, held a 5.7% share.
In contrast, QBE North American Insurance Group had a 30.4% market share of No. 19 North Dakota's $1.63 billion in premiums. Chubb INA Group was second, with a 21.2% market share in North Dakota.
The report includes states ranked by DPW, number of companies in each state, percentage of premium change, direct defense and cost containment expense ratio, adjusted loss ratio and the percentage in market share in each state of agency and direct business, along with the two largest writers per state.
Learn more about Best’s News and Research Service.
Subscribers can access the report and data here.
AM Best data sourced from Best’s Financial Suite, US.
(By Renée Kiriluk-Hill, senior associate editor, BestWire: Renee.Kiriluk-Hill@ambest.com)