Natural disasters

Hedge funds are facing pushback in California as their bets tied to insurance claims stemming from the Los Angeles wildfires are attacked as unethical.

Catastrophe risk information from government bodies and academic institutions would make it possible to insure more homeowners based on more granular assessment, according to insurance industry professionals.

Insured losses from natural catastrophes could soar to $145 billion this year as population growth, urban sprawl and climate change combine to supercharge risks, according to a report by Swiss Re Institute.

The global insurance protection gap was last estimated at $1.8 trillion, according to SAS.

Wall Street brokers have started selling insurers' claims tied to Los Angeles' deadly wildfires, which may trigger a payout from the utilities blamed for the destruction, according to people familiar with the matter.

Fremont, a Bay Area city of 226,000, in September became the first municipality in the nation to buy its own citywide flood insurance policy.

First came a dry spell that parched the land, then a spark, followed by some wind. Suddenly, swaths of South Carolina were consumed by voracious flames.

The governor aims to secure federal funding with latest executive order in aftermath of Los Angeles fires.

Many homes that burned in the Eaton Fire lay outside the boundaries of state- or local-designated "very high" fire hazard severity zones, Bloomberg Green found after analyzing inspection reports by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, for more than 20,000 residential properties in areas affected by the recent wildfires.

California's insurance commission plans to impose a $1 billion assessment on private insurers to shore up the FAIR Plan.