Meet the insurance commissioner candidates: Stacy Korsgaden

Capitol Weekly recently asked a half dozen insurance commissioner candidates to answer a set of identical questions regarding how they would approach this incredibly important and challenging job. The candidates – Sen. Ben Allen, former Sen. Steven Bradford, California Working Families Party executive director Jane Kim, Insurance agent Stacy Korsgaden, Los Angeles school teacher Lalo Vargas and financial analyst Patrick Wolff – all submitted their answers, which we will be presenting individually in alphabetical order by last name. In recent weeks we have featured answers from Sen. Ben Allen, former Sen. Steven Bradford and California Working Families Party executive director Jane Kim. This week we bring you the answers provided to us by insurance agent Stacy Korsgaden.

What professional experience or background best prepares you to serve as California’s Insurance Commissioner, and how would that experience guide your decision-making in this role?

I am a nationally recognized insurance subject matter expert running for California Insurance Commissioner. I have held an active California insurance license (#0750748) since 1988 and, for nearly 40 years, have helped families and small businesses navigate complex insurance policies, devastating losses, and an increasingly broken regulatory system. My approach is straightforward and practical: restore a functional insurance marketplace, protect consumers, crack down on fraud, and ensure the system works for the people who pay into it. I outline my plan on my website at stacyforinsurancecommissioner.com/myplan.

Many Californians report difficulty finding or keeping homeowners insurance coverage. What is your plan to ensure insurance remains available statewide, particularly in higher-risk areas?

California families are paying the price for failed policies – rising insurance premiums, shrinking coverage options, wildfire devastation, and public safety concerns. It’s time for leadership that tackles the root causes, not just the symptoms.

My plan aims to attract new policy options, not just maintain the status quo. I will establish a dedicated New Business Division to recruit and expedite admitted carriers into California’s market, relieving pressure on the Fair Plan and legacy carriers burdened by high-loss risk pools.

Advocate for Aggressive Wildfire Risk Reduction and Forest Management Reform. Serve as a vocal advocate to lawmakers to reevaluate and amend policies that have contributed to unhealthy forests. Push for fuels reduction, improved forest management, and investments that mitigate wildfire risk statewide.

Support Prop 36 and Public Safety Reforms. Request legislative funding and support for Prop 36 and related initiatives that correct past policy failures and reduce crime through proven, effective measures.

Promote Innovative, Regional Firefighting Solutions. Champion regional responses and proven technologies, such as the City of Yorba Linda’s Heli-Hydrant system using 5,000-gallon helicopter tanks and local helicopters.  This has already proven to be successful and we need to support local programs.

By bringing more admitted carriers into the state, reducing wildfire exposure, and supporting public safety reforms, we will protect families, lower costs, and restore confidence in the marketplace.

How would you propose to bolster California’s FAIR Plan?

I would not support expanding the FAIR Plan or “bolstering” it. My priority is ensuring consumers have real choice among private insurance carriers, rather than being forced to rely on the insurer of last resort. Current actions by the Department of Insurance and lawmakers are steering us toward higher premiums, reduced coverage, and a system that constantly requires fixes. That is the Fair Plan.

The FAIR Plan should remain a last resort for those who cannot obtain a traditional policy. Instead of expanding it, we should focus on reopening the market to new carriers, something the DOI has ignored, as well as emphasizing to lawmakers the importance of sound risk management. By stimulating a competitive market and responsible risk practices, we can reduce reliance on the FAIR Plan.

Consumers don’t want the FAIR Plan. They want choice, affordability, and reliable coverage. Let’s give them what they deserve.

California insurance rates — especially homeowners insurance — have risen sharply in recent years. What specific actions would you take as Insurance Commissioner to slow or reduce rate increases while ensuring insurers remain financially stable?

For the past four decades, California has been misled about insurance rates. Politicians have found it convenient to claim they are “saving consumers,” but in reality, price controls and overregulation have created scarcity and driven prices higher.

My focus is on true affordability, promoting an abundance of carrier choices, competitive pricing, and flexible policy options. Only by embracing a free and open market can California achieve a stable insurance marketplace that works for consumers.

The Commissioner’s role is to ensure the financial strength of carriers so they can fulfill their commitments to policyholders, not to dictate prices. If we don’t change course, we risk a future where nearly every homeowner is forced onto the “FAIR Plan.”

How will you maintain independence from insurance companies, political parties, and special interests while serving as Insurance Commissioner?

The responsibility of this office demands technical competence and proven experience, not partisan identity. My qualifications are built on nearly 40 years of hands-on insurance expertise, not political affiliation. I am the only candidate in the race who has the technical competence and practical marketplace experience. My work and efforts for four decades have been helping consumers get honest, reliable protection. This has been possible because my focus was my client. As Insurance Commissioner, my focus will continue to be the consumer, the ones that need protection. We can only do that in a strong, fair, transparent, and healthy insurance system that always puts people, individuals, families, and business owners first, before any other special interests.

I am not just philosophically committed to reform, I am professionally equipped to execute it. My qualifications to serve in this office exceed partisan labels.

Please describe any ethics standards or transparency practices you would implement or strengthen.

I will immediately conduct an internal department audit to examine how every dollar is spent, identify any fraud, waste, or abuse, and put in place strong safeguards so public funds are fully protected and transparently accounted for. These audit findings and the corrective actions we take will be posted in full on the department website so every Californian can see how their money is being safeguarded.

I will personally commit to regularly interviewing and communicating with industry leaders, in open forums and through committees within the department, so their insights and concerns are fully disclosed and transparent to the public. As a fiduciary, I recognize that my highest duty of care and compliance is owed to the client and in California, the client is the policyholder whose rights, premiums, and protections must always come before special interests.

Wildfire and natural disaster risk increasingly shape California’s insurance market. What role should the Insurance Commissioner play in addressing these risks — before disasters occur — and how should costs be shared among insurers, homeowners, and the state?

As Insurance Commissioner, I will be the loudest voice telling lawmakers and the public that we do not need to live in fear of these events. I will speak plainly about how decades of environmental law, regulation, and land and water mismanagement have contributed to preventable catastrophes, leaving our citizens and our insurance system exposed. Insurance is a predictive science: if we ignore risk, prices soar and coverage disappears.

I will push for policies that dedicate real resources to mitigating our lands, forests, and waters, through fuels reduction, smarter land use planning, defensible space, and resilient infrastructure. When we invest upfront to reduce risk, we create the conditions for a healthier insurance market, where coverage is both affordable and accessible. In California, a safe, well managed environment is not separate from a strong insurance pillar; it is the foundation that allows families and businesses to insure their homes, livelihoods, and futures.

Bonus questions (optional)

California law allows private plaintiff groups to “intervene” in insurance rate filings by challenging an insurer’s rate filing request. Insurers then compensate the intervenor for its costs. Supporters of the process say it helps consumers, while opponents claim it simply duplicates work the CA Department of Insurance already does to evaluate insurer rate filing requests. Where do you stand on California’s intervenor process?

I adamantly oppose California’s current insurance rate intervenor system created under Proposition 103. This decades old process, which most consumers have never heard of, was sold as a consumer protection tool but has instead helped drive us toward today’s crisis of shrinking options and rising prices.

Under this system, well funded intervenor organizations can insert themselves into rate filings, drag out proceedings for months or years, and then collect substantial fees that are ultimately embedded in the cost structure of our insurance market. The result is a process that too often rewards delay and litigation over timely, data driven decisions and discourages insurers from offering or expanding coverage in California.

As Insurance Commissioner, I will pursue reforms that:

• Put policyholders first, by prioritizing timely, actuarially sound rate decisions that keep coverage available and affordable.
• Increase transparency around who is intervening, how much they are being paid, and how their actions affect consumer prices and product availability.
• Set clear standards and timelines to prevent abuse of the process, so legitimate consumer concerns can be heard without turning every filing into a protracted legal battle.

My goal is a system where the true “intervenor” is the California policyholder whose voice, access to coverage, and premium competition are at the center of every regulatory decision.

How should voters measure whether an Insurance Commissioner is succeeding? What outcomes should Californians expect to see by the end of your first term?

As Insurance Commissioner, success will be measurable, monitored, and reported to the public so Californians can see clear progress over time. My goal is to change the culture of the Department of Insurance to be customer service focused. I will establish a robust online “Consumer Advocacy Hub” that includes an Insurance Company Scorecard for accountability, tracks key indicators of market vitality, provides immediate claim assistance in catastrophe areas, maintains a list of company contact numbers, and includes an “Insurance Agent Hotline” for reporting bad practices.

First, carriers that have effectively shut down or stopped writing will be back in the market writing new business, renewing policies, and fully serving their clients again.

Second, I will implement a New Business Division at the Department of Insurance, dedicated to attracting new capital and new companies back to California so they can compete for your business. Through real competition, we drive better cost, broader coverage, and higher quality service for consumers.

Third, we will set explicit goals for fraud detection, investigation, and prosecution, because consumers ultimately pay for fraud in the form of higher premiums.

Finally, I will return the Department of Insurance to its original purpose and focus:

• Regulate insurers so they remain fiscally sound and able to keep their contractual promises.
• License and oversee insurance agents and brokers so they act ethically and professionally.
• Detect, deter, and punish fraud wherever it occurs in the marketplace.