Commercial insurance for California businesses, placed through the open market. Aaron Ameduri Agency LLC, licensed producer.
California workers' comp doesn't wait for you to grow into it. Coverage is required the moment you have one employee, no threshold, no grace period for a sole proprietor bringing on their first hire. The rating and experience mod calculation is also different from almost anywhere else I place business: California runs its own bureau, the WCIRB, instead of NCCI, with its own primary loss threshold and its own rules for what counts toward the mod.
Wildfire has reshaped the property market here, but not evenly. The state's one-year moratorium on non-renewals after a declared wildfire disaster protects homeowners. It does not extend to commercial property. A business a mile from a fire perimeter can still get a non-renewal notice the same month a residential neighbor down the road is legally protected from one.
The California FAIR Plan exists as a backstop for property that can't find coverage anywhere else, but it only covers fire, lightning, explosion, and smoke. No liability, no water damage, no theft, no business income. A business placed on the FAIR Plan almost always needs a separate policy layered underneath it to cover everything the FAIR Plan leaves out.
California is also one of a small number of states with pure comparative negligence. A business can be found mostly not at fault, even 90 percent not at fault, and still owe a share of the damages. There's no threshold where a plaintiff's own fault cuts off their right to collect.
If your current agent is doing right by you, I will tell you that and get out of your way.
California's commercial market leans heavily on the open market and excess and surplus lines paper right now, and construction, agriculture in the Central Valley, entertainment production around Los Angeles, and technology in the Bay Area each have their own placement quirks that a generalist appetite doesn't handle well. Construction carries some of the highest workers' comp base rates in the state. Production companies need project-specific policies written for a shoot that might last three weeks.
Real estate and habitational owners carry the wildfire and FAIR Plan exposure directly, and hospitality carries the wage-and-hour exposure hardest of any industry in the state. Placing California business well means knowing which of those pressures actually applies to the account in front of you.
The main office is in Fort Worth, Texas. California accounts are commercial only, placed through the open market with specialty carriers and MGAs.
No. Insurance Code section 675.1 requires a one-year moratorium on non-renewals after a governor-declared wildfire disaster, but it applies to residential property insurance only. A commercial building in or near the same fire perimeter has no equivalent protection and can be non-renewed on the normal schedule.
The commercial FAIR Plan is a named-peril policy covering fire, lightning, internal explosion, and smoke damage to the building. It doesn't include liability, water damage, theft, or business income. Most businesses placed on it need a separate difference-in-conditions policy to cover what the FAIR Plan leaves out.
Yes. California requires workers' compensation coverage from the moment an employer has a single employee, with no exemption based on headcount. The experience mod is also calculated by California's own rating bureau, the WCIRB, rather than NCCI.