Alabama Beach Pool (AIUA): what it covers, who qualifies, and inland options

Does Alabama have a FAIR Plan?

No. Alabama has no statewide FAIR Plan. Its only residual-market property pool is the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (AIUA), commonly called the Beach Pool, which writes wind-and-hail-only coverage in parts of Baldwin and Mobile counties. For an inland non-renewal, the next stop is the surplus-lines market.

AIUA covers wind and hail only; it stopped writing fire coverage on October 1, 2023, having non-renewed every fire-coverage policy on its books (Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association, verified May 2026). The dwelling cap is $650,000, effective November 1, 2025. Coverage is limited to risks south of the 31st parallel in Baldwin and Mobile counties; the rest of the state is outside AIUA's footprint.

If a home was just non-renewed inland, there is no FAIR Plan to fall back on. The route is the standard admitted market first, then excess and surplus (E&S) lines, which are non-admitted carriers accessed through an Alabama-licensed surplus-lines broker. For a starting reference, see the Alabama Department of Insurance's Consumer's Guide to Homeowners Insurance; the sections below walk through what AIUA writes, who qualifies, what it costs, and the inland alternatives.

What does it cover?

For most of Alabama, nothing: there is no inland FAIR Plan. The only residual-market mechanism is the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (the Beach Pool), and it writes a named-peril policy covering wind and hail only, on eligible residential and commercial property south of the 31st parallel in Baldwin and Mobile counties. Fire, theft, liability, and flood are excluded (Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association FAQs, verified May 2026).

AIUA used to write fire alongside wind, but the association non-renewed all fire-coverage policies effective October 1, 2023. Since then it has been a wind-and-hail-only book. If the dwelling sits in a FEMA flood zone (A or V), AIUA requires the homeowner to carry flood insurance at least equal to the AIUA policy limits, with limited condo exceptions above the second floor.

That means a coastal Alabama household typically stacks three policies: an AIUA wind-and-hail policy; a separate ex-wind homeowners or dwelling policy from the voluntary or surplus-lines market, carrying the fire, theft, and liability lines AIUA dropped; and an NFIP or private flood policy where the flood zone requires it. The "wrap" question here isn't the usual difference-in-conditions (DIC) construct; it's a parallel ex-wind policy doing most of the work, while AIUA carries only the storm risk.

Inland Alabama is a different problem entirely. With no residual-market mechanism in place, a hard-to-insure inland home is written on a full excess & surplus (E&S) form, not as a wrap over a narrow base policy. The alternatives section below names who is writing those forms now.

How much will it cover?

The cap depends on where the home sits. For an eligible coastal 1-4 family residence, the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (AIUA, the Beach Pool) writes dwelling coverage up to $650,000, raised from $500,000 effective November 1, 2025 (Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association, verified May 2026). Personal property is capped at 50% of the dwelling limit, up to $325,000.

A coastal AIUA policy has a few wrinkles that shape what the cap really buys. AIUA writes wind and hail only, so a separate fire-and-extended-coverage policy from an admitted carrier or the surplus-lines market sits underneath it. Hurricane deductibles are stated as a percentage of the dwelling limit rather than a flat dollar amount, so they scale with the cap. A FORTIFIED-certified roof qualifies for a premium credit; the AIUA publishes the credit schedule by tier but does not publish an aggregate percentage figure (Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association).

Inland Alabama has no equivalent cap because there is no inland FAIR Plan. Coverage limits in that part of the state come from whichever admitted carrier or surplus-lines insurer agrees to write the home. The dwelling number on a quote should match the rebuild cost rather than the market value; that distinction shows up at claim time as the difference between replacement cost and actual cash value.

Who is eligible?

Eligibility is narrow. AIUA, the Beach Pool, only writes wind-and-hail coverage for owner-occupied homes south of the 31st parallel in Baldwin and Mobile counties; the applicant must show they cannot get wind/hail coverage in the private market, and the dwelling has to meet AIUA's underwriting standards (roof condition, flood-insurance compliance inside a FEMA zone). Vacant or unoccupied dwellings, farm property, anything with pre-existing damage, and properties inside Coastal Barrier Resources Act zones are excluded; so are rentals, second homes, and investment properties (Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association, verified May 2026).

Alabama does not publish a fixed numeric declination count. The rule the plan applies is the substantive one: the applicant was unable to obtain wind/hail coverage in the voluntary market. An independent agent canvassing admitted carriers is what generates that record.

For an inland hard-to-insure home there is no FAIR Plan and no Beach Pool route. The path is the admitted market first, then the surplus-lines market through an Alabama-licensed surplus-line broker. The surplus-lines diligent-search requirement (the broker has to document that admitted carriers declined the risk) is the state's gatekeeper. The alternatives section below covers both routes.

How do you apply?

It depends where the home sits. For a coastal Alabama home in AIUA territory, the route is through an AIUA-authorized agent licensed in Alabama; the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association does not sell directly to consumers (verified May 2026). The find-an-agent directory on aiua.org lists writing producers by county.

For an inland Alabama home that just got non-renewed, there is no FAIR Plan to apply to. The order of operations is: a licensed Alabama agent shops the admitted market first; if every admitted carrier declines, that same agent or a separate surplus-lines broker places coverage with an excess and surplus (E&S) carrier, which is a non-admitted insurer that can write risks the admitted market refuses.

The agent typically asks for the non-renewal letter, the current declarations page, photographs of the home, the roof's age, and on older houses a recent four-point inspection. Turnaround on a surplus-lines quote varies by underwriter and file; the public record doesn't pin a typical window. If a lender needs proof while the policy issues, an insurance binder is what bridges that gap.

How much does it cost?

Alabama has no FAIR Plan, so there is no FAIR Plan premium benchmark to quote. Cost splits along the same line coverage does: a wind-only AIUA policy along the lower-coastal counties, or a surplus-lines policy from the non-admitted (excess and surplus, or E&S) market for an inland home the admitted carriers have declined.

For the coast, the wind-only premium from the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (the Beach Pool, Alabama's sole residual-market mechanism) is typically higher than comparable private-market wind coverage for many coastal risks, and for some high-risk coastal homes it is the only option (verified May 2026). Two pricing features on an AIUA policy matter most for what a coastal homeowner actually pays:

• A hurricane deductible expressed as a percentage of the dwelling limit (multiple options are offered), not a flat dollar amount. On a percentage deductible, a homeowner pays a defined share of the dwelling limit out of pocket before the policy responds to a named storm.
• A premium discount for FORTIFIED-roof construction, which the AIUA's About page describes as a significant discount without publishing a specific percentage. The actual credit lives in the rate filing rather than on the public site.

For inland Alabama, the cost question has no clean answer in advance. A home the admitted market has declined moves to an E&S form, typically priced higher than the admitted market and written on narrower terms (named-peril basis, higher deductibles, sometimes wind exclusions); the number depends on the property, the carrier, and the loss history. A non-renewal letter does not by itself say where the next premium will land; see the rundown on what drives a sharp premium jump at my premium just jumped.

What is changing right now?

Two AIUA structural shifts shape the current Alabama picture. AIUA non-renewed all fire-coverage policies effective October 1, 2023 and now writes wind and hail only, so a Baldwin or Mobile coastal homeowner needs an AIUA wind/hail policy plus a separate ex-wind dwelling policy plus a flood policy. The maximum dwelling limit also rose from $500,000 to $650,000 effective November 1, 2025, with contents capped at 50% of dwelling ($325,000).

Per the Insurance Information Institute's FY2024 Beach-and-Windstorm-Plans table, AIUA wrote roughly 18,637 policies (about 18,600 habitational and 37 commercial), carrying roughly $7.47 billion in exposure and roughly $43.3 million in direct premiums written. AIUA sits in the III's windstorm-plans table rather than its FAIR-plans table; Alabama has no FAIR Plan, and the Beach Pool is the state's only residual-market mechanism, scoped to coastal wind.

Coastal carriers in Baldwin and Mobile continue tightening hurricane underwriting, raising hurricane percentage deductibles, and selectively non-renewing, which keeps feeding business into AIUA alongside broader statewide homeowners rate increases.

The structural mitigation lever is FORTIFIED. Alabama law requires admitted carriers to give a roughly 20% to 60% wind-premium discount based on FORTIFIED level; surplus-lines carriers are not bound. The state's Strengthen Alabama Homes grant program funds up to $10,000 toward re-roofing a home to the FORTIFIED standard, which is the most common path to triggering the discount and reducing AIUA exposure on the wind line. Current AIUA assessment and reinsurance figures change year to year and aren't broken out in the III table; AIUA's annual materials carry them when filed. Dated entries on the policy count, exposure, and the cap increase are tracked in the changelog.

Do you also need a wrap (DIC) policy?

For most of Alabama, the question doesn't apply the way it does in states with a true inland FAIR Plan. Alabama has no inland residual market: a home admitted carriers won't take is written on a surplus-lines (E&S) form, not a stripped-down plan policy that needs a wrap built around it.

The coast is the exception. The Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (AIUA, the Beach Pool) writes a wind-and-hail-only policy for eligible properties in Baldwin and Mobile counties. That policy covers exactly two perils. It does not cover fire, theft, liability, water damage, or flood. An AIUA policy never stands alone; the household needs, at minimum:

• A separate "ex-wind" homeowners or dwelling policy from an admitted or surplus-lines carrier, covering fire, theft, liability, and water damage.
• A flood policy, NFIP or private, if the property sits in a special flood hazard area, which much of the coastal strip does.

This isn't a difference-in-conditions policy in the classic sense. A DIC is a secondary form built to fill the specific gaps a primary policy leaves, the common pairing in FAIR Plan states with a low dwelling cap. The Alabama coastal setup is two co-equal primary policies, sold side by side, often by the same independent agent (Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association, verified May 2026). For a buyer mid-transaction, the lender will want both policies bound and evidenced before close, alongside the flood policy if the appraisal flags an SFHA zone.

Alternatives to the FAIR Plan in Alabama

Alabama doesn't run a traditional FAIR Plan. Its residual-market mechanism is narrow: the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (AIUA, the Beach Pool) writes wind-and-hail-only policies, and only in the eligible coastal counties. For everyone else, and for inland homes AIUA can't write at all, the two next stops after a non-renewal are small specialty admitted carriers and the excess and surplus (E&S) market.

Try admitted carriers first. An admitted carrier is licensed and regulated by the state, and its policies are backed by the state guaranty fund if the company fails. Specialty admitted writers exist precisely for homes the standard market has declined; an independent agent who works the non-standard market is the fastest way to reach them.

If admitted carriers also decline, the next stop is the excess and surplus (E&S) market. Surplus-lines insurers are not state-rate-regulated and are not backed by the guaranty fund, but they exist specifically to write what the admitted market won't. The route in is the same independent agent or, often, a wholesale broker the agent uses on the back end.

What to do this week if you just got a non-renewal notice

A non-renewal letter is jarring, especially after a clean claims history. The path forward in Alabama is methodical, not urgent in the panic sense: the letter typically gives a stated notice window, and there is time to work through the steps in order.

1. Read the notice for the effective date and the reason code. The date sets your deadline; the reason (loss history, roof age, condition, geography, carrier exit) shapes which markets will take a fresh look. Keep the letter; underwriters will ask for it.
2. Pull a current LexisNexis C.L.U.E. report on yourself. It's the prior-claims database carriers run before quoting, and one free copy a year is yours by law. Knowing what's on it before an agent runs it lets you correct errors and explain the rest.
3. Call an independent agent, not a captive one, and ask for quotes from at least three admitted carriers. Independents shop multiple companies; captive agents write one. If the home is coastal, ask specifically whether they place with the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (the Beach Pool) and which admitted wrap carrier they pair with it.
4. If admitted carriers decline, ask the same agent about excess and surplus (E&S) lines. E&S carriers (non-admitted, state-approved) write the harder risks; premiums are higher and policy forms vary, so read the exclusions carefully.
5. Get the new policy bound before the old one ends. A lapse, even a one-day gap, shows on the next carrier's report and can disqualify you from preferred rates for years. Bind first, cancel old second.
6. If you have a mortgage, send the new declarations page to your servicer the day it issues. Force-placed insurance is expensive and covers only the lender's interest, not yours.

For the full walk-through, including what to say on the call and how to read the declarations page once it arrives, see the non-renewal playbook.