2026-09-15 · Montana · Regulation

What happened. Since October 1, 2025, a Montana insurer that scores a property for wildfire risk has to tell you the score — and, more usefully, what made it bad.

The statute

House Bill 533, “Revise insurance laws relating to wildfire and real property,” became Chapter 485, Laws of 2025. Signed May 8, 2025, effective October 1, 2025, codified into Title 33, chapter 16, MCA.¹

An insurer using a wildfire risk score “in connection with the property evaluation or in rating of residential real property shall, on the request of an insured, the insured's insurance producer, or an applicant,” provide:

• (a) the current wildfire risk score of the residential property;
• (b) the range of possible wildfire risk scores under the model used;
• (c) the name of the person or entity that created the score;
• (d) the date on which it was created; and
• (e) the key factors that adversely affected it.

The response is due no later than 30 days after receiving a request.

The definition, and the one big limit

“Wildfire risk score” means “a numerical value, rating, or categorization derived from a statistical tool, modeling system, algorithm, or other process that is used for the purpose of predicting the future wildfire-related insurance loss exposure of a property.”

“Insurer” means admitted insurers only. The statute says expressly: “The term does not apply to nonadmitted insurers.”

1. House Bill 533 (2025), enrolled bill — Chapter 485, Laws of 2025, wildfire risk score disclosure (Montana Legislature document store) ↩
2. House Bill 136 (2025), enrolled bill — Chapter 105, Laws of 2025, premium benefits for preventative measures under §§ 33-15-1108, 33-16-203 and 33-18-210 ↩
3. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-210 — the 2025 definition of “enforcement action” bearing on selective non-enforcement of landscaping covenants (official) ↩