Wildfire Score vs. Verisk Score vs. CoreLogic — Which Does My Insurer Use?

Why This Matters

When an insurance company decides whether to write or renew a homeowners policy in a wildfire-prone area, it almost never sends someone to walk your property. It buys a score from a data vendor. That score, combined with the insurer's internal thresholds, determines whether your property clears their underwriting criteria.

You did not choose which vendor your insurer uses. You do not know your score. You were not told the threshold. And yet this number, generated by an algorithm you cannot see using data you cannot fully audit, is often the proximate reason you received a non-renewal notice.

Understanding the landscape does not give you an easy fix. But it tells you where to focus if you want to contest a score or reduce your risk profile over time.

The Major Score Providers

Verisk FireLine

Verisk is the dominant data analytics vendor for the U.S. property insurance industry. FireLine is their wildfire risk score, rated on a scale of 0 to 30 (some versions extend higher). It has been in use since the 1990s and is the most widely used score among large admitted carriers in Western states.

FireLine scores are based on three primary factors: fuel (vegetation density and type), slope (steeper terrain means faster-spreading fire), and access (how easily firefighters can reach the property). They are calculated at roughly the parcel or address level, not just by ZIP code, though the underlying data varies by region.

FireLine scores are not publicly available directly from Verisk. However, some California county assessors and fire agencies publish FireLine scores on their websites or make them available on request. California Senate Bill 1060 (2021) requires insurers to disclose their underwriting criteria, and some insurers will provide a FireLine score on request under that framework.

CoreLogic Climate Risk Analytics

CoreLogic, primarily known as a real estate data company, also sells wildfire risk scores to insurers. Their Wildfire Risk Score runs on a 1 to 100 scale. It incorporates factors similar to Verisk's model — fuel, slope, proximity to past fire perimeters — but weights them differently and may incorporate additional structural or defensible space data where available.

CoreLogic's scores are not publicly accessible. They are sold directly to insurers and lenders. There is no consumer portal to look up your CoreLogic score.

First Street Foundation

First Street Foundation is a nonprofit research organization that produces climate risk scores across multiple hazard types: wildfire, flood, wind, heat, and air quality. Their Wildfire Factor runs on a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being the highest risk.

Unlike Verisk and CoreLogic, First Street makes its scores publicly available at the property level through their Risk Factor website (riskfactor.com). You can look up any U.S. address and see the wildfire factor, along with flood factor and other risks. First Street scores are forward-looking — they incorporate climate change projections through 2050 — whereas Verisk and CoreLogic scores are primarily based on current physical conditions.

Not all insurers use First Street scores for underwriting. But because it is the only publicly accessible score, it is the most practical starting point for understanding your own risk profile.

Moody's RMS

Moody's RMS produces catastrophe models used primarily by reinsurers — the companies that insure insurance companies. Their models influence how much reinsurance a primary carrier needs to buy to cover wildfire exposure, which in turn affects whether the primary carrier can profitably write policies in high-risk areas. Most homeowners will never interact with Moody's RMS directly, but it sits behind many of the market-level decisions that affect which carriers are willing to write in your ZIP code.

Which Carriers Use Which Vendors?

Carrier-vendor relationships are not publicly disclosed. What is known from industry reporting and regulatory filings as of early 2026:

If you want to know which vendor your specific insurer uses, you can ask directly. In California, insurers must respond to underwriting information requests under SB 1060. In other states, they may decline. Your state insurance department may have guidance on what insurers are required to disclose in your state.

What Goes Into a Wildfire Score

Across vendors, wildfire risk scores generally incorporate some combination of these factors:

Can You Improve Your Score?

The honest answer is: sometimes, for some vendors, with significant effort.

The most actionable steps are defensible space creation and structure hardening. California's defensible space law requires 100 feet of clearance for most properties in high-risk zones. Beyond compliance, creating additional clearance and replacing combustible materials (wood decks, wood shingle roofs, unscreened vents) with fire-resistant alternatives can reduce a modeled risk score — but only if the score vendor updates their model based on current conditions at your property.

The challenge is that many scores are based on geographic data that updates on an annual or multi-year cycle, not in response to individual property improvements. An insurer using a score that was last updated from aerial imagery in 2022 will not see improvements you made in 2025 until the vendor's next data refresh.

If you make significant improvements — replacing the roof with a Class A assembly, clearing defensible space, replacing wood decking — document everything and request a re-evaluation from both your insurer and the score vendor if that is possible in your state. Some specialty insurers will conduct a property-specific assessment if you request one and the property is otherwise worth writing.

The U.S. Treasury Federal Insurance Office (FIO), January 2025 report — Analyses of U.S. Homeowners Insurance Markets, 2018 to 2022: Climate-Related Risks and Other Factors — noted that inconsistency in how insurers use third-party scores, and lack of transparency to consumers about those scores, was a significant contributor to the market dislocation in wildfire-exposed states. The FIO recommended greater disclosure and standardization. As of early 2026, federal action on this recommendation remains limited.

The Disclosure Gap

Most states do not require insurers to tell you your risk score or explain which vendor they used. California is the exception: SB 1060 (2021) requires California insurers to disclose their underwriting criteria, including the use of third-party risk scores, and to respond to written requests from policyholders for information about scoring methodology. Other states have not followed.

If you are in California and received a non-renewal notice, you can write to your insurer and request disclosure of any third-party risk score used in the underwriting decision. The request must be in writing. The insurer must respond within a specified timeframe. The response may not give you the raw score but should tell you whether a score was used and provide general information about the criteria.

In other states, contact your state insurance department. Some state regulators have taken informal positions on what insurers should disclose; your state's consumer assistance line can tell you what is available to you.