HB606: HB606 FAIR Plan Stabilization Act; enact

Georgia law requires every insurer that writes property insurance in the state to belong to the FAIR Plan (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements), an assigned-risk pool that provides coverage to people and businesses who can't find it on the private market. Currently, insurers share the plan's profits, losses, and expenses based on their share of the property insurance market. HB606 keeps that market-share formula as the default but adds a new option: the plan's board of directors can redistribute those risks among member insurers on a more equitable basis, as long as the state insurance commissioner approves. The bill amends two sections of Georgia's FAIR Plan law (O.C.G.A. §§ 33-33-3 and 33-33-4) to allow this alternative distribution method. If the board and commissioner don't put an equitable redistribution plan in place, insurers fall back to sharing risk strictly by market share, as before. The General Assembly states in the bill's findings that spreading risk more broadly could reduce any single insurer's exposure and discourage insurers from avoiding riskier policies. The law would take effect January 1, 2026.

• Gives the FAIR Plan's underwriting association directors authority to redistribute insurance risks among member insurers on a more equitable basis, subject to the insurance commissioner's approval.
• Keeps the existing rule that insurers share the plan's writings, expenses, profits, and losses proportional to their market share, but makes it a fallback if no equitable redistribution plan is adopted.
• Amends O.C.G.A. § 33-33-4 to explicitly authorize the commissioner to approve an equitable redistribution of risk through assignments to plan members.
• States legislative findings that broader risk-sharing could stabilize the FAIR Plan and reduce insurers' incentive to avoid low-risk policies only, informing the intent behind the changes.
• Sets the effective date for these changes as January 1, 2026.

Insurers licensed to write property insurance in Georgia, since all are required to belong to the FAIR Plan; the FAIR Plan's underwriting association and its board of directors; the state insurance commissioner, who must approve any redistribution plan; and indirectly, property owners and businesses who rely on the FAIR Plan for coverage.

By letting risk be spread more evenly across insurers rather than strictly by market share, the bill could change how much individual insurers pay toward the FAIR Plan's losses, potentially affecting their willingness to write policies for higher-risk properties covered by the plan.

• Section 1 names the bill the 'FAIR Plan Stabilization Act.'
• Section 2 lists legislative findings describing the current market-share-based system and the rationale for allowing broader risk redistribution.
• Section 3 revises O.C.G.A. § 33-33-3 to make market-share-based sharing of writings, expenses, profits, and losses subject to an equitable distribution option under Section 33-33-4(d).
• Section 4 revises O.C.G.A. § 33-33-4 to authorize the association's directors, with the commissioner's approval, to redistribute risks by assigning them to plan members, with market-share sharing as the default if no such plan is adopted.
• Section 5 sets the effective date as January 1, 2026.
• Section 6 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2025-02-27House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-02-26House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-02-24House Hopper (House)

• Marvin Lim (D, HD-098)Primary sponsor
• Karen Lupton (D, HD-083)

• property insurance
• FAIR Plan
• insurance regulation
• insurance risk pooling