Clarysse Blanchard, Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, said that innovative, risk-focused approaches are necessary to better protect California homeowners and enhance resilience following the Los Angeles fires. The statement was made on LinkedIn.
“Since then, McKinsey has been exploring how to best support our LA community,” said Blanchard, according to LinkedIn. “Our article highlights the crisis in California’s homeowners insurance market, exacerbated by increasingly destructive wildfires. Can innovative solutions bridge this gap and protect homeowners? New thinking highlights the need for active risk reduction, optimized risk ownership, and forward-looking wildfire models.”
According to Guy Carpenter, reciprocal homeowners insurance exchanges assist wildfire-exposed communities in recovery and resilience-building by aligning member interests and funding prevention initiatives. An example is Guy Carpenter’s 2024 initiative to research community-based parametric reciprocal exchanges in California and Florida. This initiative highlights that households often lack sufficient coverage for rebuilding, and reciprocal structures may close this protection gap by pooling subscriber risk and accelerating claims payouts for faster recovery after major fires.
Agency Checklists summarized PURE’s 2024 Report to Members, noting that Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE), a policyholder-owned homeowners carrier, reported a 16% rise in direct written premiums in 2024 to over $2.4 billion. The policyholder surplus reached approximately $814.6 million, with the net combined ratio improving to about 100.4%, reflecting enhanced financial capacity to fund member claims in challenging markets.
Captive.com cited a recent AM Best report indicating that reciprocals offer more premium stability, mitigation incentives, and coverage continuity compared with many traditional insurers in catastrophe-exposed regions. The report found that the direct premium volume of newly-formed reciprocals rose 83% from 2022 to 2024, primarily in homeowners lines. It noted that the model gives subscribers control over rates and strategy, whereas traditional carriers in fire-prone states often increase premiums or withdraw capacity entirely.
Blanchard is listed as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company focusing on climate-risk and resilience engagements in the insurance sector. She has prior experience in analytics and transformation roles according to published profiles and McKinsey staff listings; her work includes advising insurers on adapting to wildfire exposure and strengthening operations in catastrophe markets.
McKinsey & Company is a global management-consulting firm founded in 1926 by James O. McKinsey. Its mission is to partner with bold leaders to deliver “distinctive, lasting, and substantial” performance improvements. The firm houses Financial Services & Insurance and Sustainability practices that advise insurers, reciprocal exchanges, and other financial-services firms on climate risk, underwriting transformation, and resilience-oriented innovation in the homeowners and catastrophe insurance market.
