Sandy Laycox

But, one year after these tragedies, some important insurance lessons have emerged. Here are five lessons that brokers can share to help their insureds mitigate their exposure to wildfires and recover after a blaze. The largest issue that surfaced with claims from the 2025 wildfires was the inadequacy of insured limits; far too few claimants were properly covered. For instance, about 80% of the claims I managed after the fires came from underinsured policies.

The core allegation is that plan participants paid too much for voluntary benefits in large part due to excessive (and allegedly undisclosed) commission compensation for the brokers.

Health+Benefits Vital Signs the May 2026 issue For its recently released 2025 benefits report, the organization tracked keyword and category searches on its website by employers, vendors, and brokers to understand what users explored. The top three most-searched services were employee assistance programs (EAPs), COBRA, and financial (health savings accounts/health reimbursement accounts/flexible spending accounts).