Summary: FAIR plans were devised as a way to enable residents and businesses in urban areas to have access to insurance. FAIR plans came into being as early as 1960 to enable those with the greatest exposure to fire to purchase insurance. Initially, the only coverages offered were fire, extended coverage, and sometimes vandalism and malicious mischief. Today, coverages offered by different states range from very basic fire to open perils homeowners. Following is a brief description of the coverages available from each state with a FAIR plan.

Many states recognized years ago that the high frequency of fire losses in urban areas made it difficult to find property coverage. The earliest such plan originated in Boston in 1960. Other states followed suit, so that by 1967 there were similar plans in California, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Following the urban riots in the late 1960s, the National Advisory Panel on Insurance in Riot-Affected Areas recommended to the National Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission) that because insurance was a necessity for residents and businesses in affected areas, all states should initiate programs to provide at least minimal property coverage in urban areas. Thus, many FAIR plans originated in 1968, when Congress established the National Insurance Development Program to offer riot reinsurance.