March 23, 2026
From Hurricane and Severe Convective Storm Mitigation to Wildfire Resilience: Understanding lessons learned and partnerships make it happen
From Hurricane and Severe Convective Storm Mitigation to Wildfire Resilience: Understanding lessons learned and partnerships make it happen
The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires were not only the costliest U.S. catastrophic (CAT) event of 2025 but also the costliest wildfire on record with $61.2 billion in damages, about twice as costly as the previous record wildfire.1 And these ongoing CAT risk events – whether wildfire, hurricane, severe convective storm – continue to put pressure on the availability and affordability of property insurance across the entire U.S. The ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ’s newly constituted CAT Risk and Resiliency Task Force has a primary focus on the build out of pre-disaster mitigation and risk modeling to support the regulation of insurance markets in the face of these availability and affordability challenges.
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) FORTIFIEDâ„¢ program has emerged as a nationally recognized standard for strengthening homes against high-wind and severe weather hazards such as severe convective storms (SCS), delivering measurable reductions in damage, insurance losses, and post-disaster disruption. Its success is rooted in rigorous science, real-world performance data, and strong collaboration among insurers, state and local governments, builders, and homeowners. These demonstrated outcomes have helped establish FORTIFIEDâ„¢ as both a resilience benchmark and a market standard for risk-informed construction and mitigation.
The Center for Insurance Policy and Research’s Catastrophe Risk Management Center of Excellence (CAT COE) plays a critical role in supporting and amplifying these mitigation efforts by serving as a convening and knowledge-sharing hub for insurance regulators nationwide, working with and through the ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ CAT Risk and Resilience Task Force. Through data analysis, policy coordination, and cross-state collaboration, the CAT COE helps translate IBHS research and mitigation standards into regulatory awareness, best practices, and consumer-facing resilience strategies. The most widespread strategy is the implementation of departments of insurance-based mitigation grant programs. This integration strengthens alignment between mitigation science, insurance markets, and regulatory frameworks, enabling broader adoption of mitigation grant programs that recognizes the IBHS FORTIFIEDâ„¢ program for wind as the standard for mitigation.
As wildfire risk escalates across the United States, the proven effectiveness of the FORTIFIED™ program—supported by insurer engagement and regulatory coordination through the CAT COE and the CAT Risk and Resilience Task Force—has fueled growing demand for IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home, Home Plus and the Wildfire Prepared Neighborhood program standards. Communities,
insurers, and policymakers are increasingly looking to replicate the success the FORTIFIEDâ„¢ model had against high wind and hail by addressing wildfire exposure, improve insurability, and reduce catastrophic losses with IBHS wildfire prepared program standards.
This session will examine how the collaborative ecosystem connecting IBHS, the CAT COE, and public/private-sector partners are driving the expansion of science-based wildfire mitigation programs and shaping the future of resilience nationwide.
Learning Objectives
· Identify how the CAT COE supports and advances mitigation programs through regulatory coordination, data sharing, and policy engagement.
· Analyze the success of mitigation grant programs that have adopted the IBHS FORTIFIED® standard and how those programs have created market demand for IBHS Wildfire Prepared programs across diverse regions of the United States.
· Discuss how alignment among mitigation science, insurance markets, and regulatory frameworks has improved insurability, reduced losses, and enhanced community resilience to wildfire and wind hazards.
Panel Speakers:
Ricardo Lara, California Insurance Commissioner
Grace Arnold, Minnesota Insurance Commissioner
Amy Bach, Executive Director, United Policyholders
Steve Hawks, Senior Director for Wildfire at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
Moderator:
Brian Powell, Catastrophe Risk Resilience Advisor, CAT COE
CIPR's special session is open to all registered ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ 2026 Spring National Meeting participants.
About the ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ
As part of our state-based system of insurance regulation in the United States, the ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ (ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ) provides expertise, data, and analysis for insurance commissioners to effectively regulate the industry and protect consumers. The U.S. standard-setting organization is governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. Through the ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ, state insurance regulators establish standards and best practices, conduct peer reviews, and coordinate regulatory oversight. ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ staff supports these efforts and represents the collective views of state regulators domestically and internationally.