Mercury General Corporation (the "Company," "Mercury" or "We") announced today its preliminary assessment of the impact of the recent wildfires in Southern California.
An extreme wind-driven wildfire event that began on January 7, 2025 has caused widespread damage across parts of Southern California. The wildfires continue to burn, and it will be some time before the Company has an estimate of the total losses caused by this event. Based on information available to date, we expect the losses to exceed our reinsurance retention level of $150 million.
The Company's reinsurance program provides $1,290 million of limits on a per occurrence basis after covered catastrophe losses exceed the Company's retention of $150 million. The Company's reinsurance program also provides coverage for assessments from the California FAIR plan. To the extent that losses are reinsured, the reinsurance program calls for reinstatements of limits to cover future events. If the full $1,290 million limits are used up, then the total reinstatement premium would be $101 million.
