The policy that makes a FAIR Plan policy into an actual program.
A standalone form that fills what a restricted property policy leaves out — theft, water damage, liability and the broader perils — most often wrapped around a FAIR Plan or other last-resort placement.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What difference in conditions businesses actually need.
The perils the base policy omits
Everything outside the named perils on a restricted form — typically all risk of direct physical loss except what is excluded.
Without it — A FAIR Plan policy covers fire, lightning and internal explosion and stops.
Theft and vandalism
Burglary, theft and malicious damage, which last-resort policies exclude or charge extra for.
Without it — An empty or half-let building loses the peril it is most likely to suffer.
Water damage
Escape of water, plumbing failure and the resulting damage.
Without it — The most frequent property loss there is, and absent from a fire-only form.
Liability
Premises liability, which a FAIR Plan policy does not carry at all.
Without it — A property owner with no liability cover is exposed on every injury claim.
Earthquake and flood, optionally
Some DIC forms are written specifically to add quake or flood rather than to wrap a FAIR Plan.
Without it — Both are excluded from essentially every standard property policy.
What difference in conditions operators ask us.
Do I need a DIC if I am on the FAIR Plan?
Almost certainly, and buying only the FAIR Plan is the most common mistake in that market. The FAIR Plan is a named-peril fire policy — fire, lightning and internal explosion, with vandalism as a paid extra. It carries no liability and no theft or water damage. An owner who replaces a full commercial policy with a FAIR Plan policy alone has swapped broad cover for a narrow one and usually does not realize it until a burst pipe or a slip-and-fall.
Is DIC the same thing as excess insurance?
No, and the distinction is worth holding. Excess sits ABOVE a policy and pays after its limit is exhausted. DIC sits BESIDE a policy and pays for things it never covered at all. They solve different problems: excess answers "the limit was too small", DIC answers "the peril was not on the form". A property owner in a restricted market usually needs the second and often thinks they are buying the first.
Is it only a California thing?
No, though California is where most people meet it because of the FAIR Plan. DIC is used anywhere a base property policy has been stripped back — wind-excluded coastal placements, quake-exposed buildings, and residual market pools in other states all get wrapped the same way. The form is a gap-filler by design, so what it contains depends entirely on what the policy underneath it left out. Read the two together or not at all.
How do I know the two policies actually line up?
By having one person read both, which is the practical argument for placing them together. The failure mode is a seam — a peril each policy assumes the other covers, or two different valuation bases, or deductibles that interact badly so a loss falls between them. Buying the FAIR Plan through one channel and the DIC through another is how seams appear, and a claim is a bad time to discover one.
Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.