Leslie Kaufman

They come in, they say, no one else wants you, we'll sell you an insurance policy at a price. But it's important for consumers to know these are not backed by a guarantee fund.

It essentially means that if your insurance company for some reason fails, you as the person who bought the policy still have a way to get paid out your claim. So that's a very important backup.

Some experts who have looked at their balance sheets are deeply concerned. They do not feel that if they were in a regulated environment, they would be allowed to keep going.

We don't know what really will happen when they get hit by the next big storm, whether they will have enough reinsurance to cover all their claims or whether they'll go bankrupt and whether it'll affect people. It's a big gamble that's playing out right now.

Yes. Even before the recent fires, insurance in California, home insurance in California, was very messy.

As of last September, the Fair Plan said it had nearly half a trillion dollars of exposure on its books, meaning that if everything they insured burned down, they would own half a trillion dollars.

What happens is the people in the neighborhood may not have enough money to build back. So there are huge costs coming ahead. And then you will have to insure these places. So really, this is going to be something that richer people are going to have a huge advantage on. And that's why we see gentrification after these kinds of fires.