The Fire Victim Trust Pays Its Last 1.25% on October 14, 2026 — Camp Fire, North Bay and Butte Fire Survivors End at 71.25% of $19.57 Billion in Awards, With No Further Pro Rata Payments After That

If you hold an accepted award from the Fire Victim Trust for the 2015 Butte Fire, the 2017 North Bay Fires or the 2018 Camp Fire, one more pro rata payment is coming, and it is the last one. Trustee Cathy Yanni's letter of September 10, 2026 says so in three sentences: “The next and final pro rata distribution will be 1.25%, resulting in an aggregate pro rata payment of 71.25%. This distribution will be made on October 14, 2026. There will be no additional pro rata distributions after this payment.”

What that means in practice: since October 24, 2024, the Trust has paid eligible claimants 70 percent of the Approved Claim Amount in their accepted Determination Notice. The October 14 payment adds another 1.25 percent of that same amount. After that, 71.25 percent is the final share; the remaining 28.75 percent of every award will not be paid. There is no new form to file. The payment goes to claimants who already meet the Trust's payment conditions: an accepted Determination Notice, payment instructions on the Trust's Payment Election Form together with a signed Form W-9, and both required releases. The only thing the Trustee asked for is current contact details — claimants should “review and update their contact information, including their email address, mailing address, and telephone number.”

The Trust had been waiting on its last lawsuit against a PG&E contractor: the vegetation-management case against Davey Tree over the October 2017 fires. The Trust announced a written settlement on December 31, 2025. On June 26, 2026, Judge Jeffrey Ross of the San Francisco Superior Court found that all conditions for the settlement payment had been met, and on September 10 the Trustee reported that “all funds relating to the settlement with Davey Tree Services have been received,” which “completes the final recovery associated with the third-party litigation pursued by the Trust.” The claims against Davey were allegations only; the settlement papers state that there was no determination of liability and that Davey does not admit liability.

The final payment is a percentage of your own award, not a flat sum. Bankruptcy rules require the same percentage for everyone; the Trust's FAQ puts it this way: “whether the claim is for $100,000 or $1 million, you will receive the same percentage payment as everyone else.” So the arithmetic — ours, not the Trust's — is short: 1.25 percent is $125 for every $10,000 of Approved Claim Amount.

An example, again our own calculation: on an award of $100,000, you have received $70,000 at 70 percent. On October 14 the Trust adds $1,250, for a total of $71,250. The other $28,750 is never paid. On a $500,000 award the final payment is $6,250. The Trust does not publish a typical or median award, so the only reliable basis for your own figure is the Approved Claim Amount in your Determination Notice.

Two things can shrink what actually reaches you. Your lawyer. If you are represented, the Trust pays your law firm, not you: “Your law firm will then pay funds to you according to whatever representation agreement you have in place.” In her August 24, 2026 letter the Trustee wrote that “attorney compensation was based on fee agreements between individual claimants and their counsel,” that the Trust “did not make separate distributions to attorneys independent of their clients, nor were attorneys compensated before their clients received payment,” and that many firms used independent escrow agents to give clients “detailed accounting statements reflecting the allocation of funds.” What your firm keeps from the 1.25 percent follows from your own contract; ask for the accounting statement for this payment. Liens. On Personal Injury and Emotional Distress awards, the Trust holds back money for medical liens asserted by Medicare, Medi-Cal and health insurers. For most claimants that holdback is capped at 33 percent of amounts paid to date, and if the final lien turns out smaller, the Trust pays you the difference.

Taxes are the other question. The Trust says it is not in a position to give tax guidance, and it issues Form 1099s — to your law firm if you are represented. In December 2024 the Trustee welcomed H.R. 5863, the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, which in her words “excludes from taxpayer gross income any amount received by an individual taxpayer as compensation for expenses or losses incurred due to a qualified wildfire disaster, including the Northern California fires covered by this Trust.” How that applies to your payment is a question for a tax advisor.

The Fire Victim Trust is a limited fund. PG&E's plan of reorganization fixed what the company would put in, and nothing more can be collected. The Trustee wrote in November 2025: “The Trust is a limited fund that will not receive anything beyond the consideration that PG&E agreed to pay to the Trust under its court-approved Plan. … The Trust has no legal ability to collect any more from PG&E.” Against that pot stand $19.57 billion in awards. PG&E's funding “was estimated to be no more than $13.5 billion”; by November 2025 the Trust had nonetheless paid $13.70 billion “as a result of the Trust’s sales of PG&E stock and successful prosecution of claims against third parties.” The last 67.7 million PG&E shares were sold in December 2023. In June 2024 the Trustee addressed talk of “100 percent” payments, saying that if there had been enough money to pay everyone in full, PG&E would not have filed for bankruptcy.

The percentage rose in steps as money came in: 30 percent with the first pro rata payments on March 15, 2021; 45 percent on February 15, 2022; 60 percent on January 31, 2023; 66 percent on April 25, 2024; 70 percent on October 24, 2024. Then almost two years passed. In July 2025 the Trustee explained why: “No pro rata payment can be made until the resolution and funding of the remaining third-party cases and ongoing litigation.” Because every claimant must get the same percentage, the Trust “cannot pay the full pro rata share of any Fire Victim Claim until it knows two things: (1) the total amount of every approved Fire Victim Claim, and (2) the total amount of assets available to pay Fire Victim Claims.” The Davey case was the last unknown. The result came in a little above the Trustee's own forecasts: in July 2025 she expected “approximately 1% or less,” in November 2025 “no more than one percent.” The Trust's FAQ still speaks of a small top-off payment in 2025; the September 10, 2026 letter is the current word.

The Davey figures are on file in the bankruptcy court (Dkt. 15097, filed August 11, 2026). Davey agreed to pay $208 million to all settling plaintiffs; the Trust's share was $145.08 million. After $1,930,183.05 in litigation costs and $31,492,959.73 in attorneys' fees — the outside firms that ran the case for the Trust had a contingency fee of 22 percent of the net recovery — the Trust kept $111,656,857.22. By our arithmetic, 1.25 percent of $19.57 billion in awards is roughly $245 million, more than twice that net. The Trustee said in June that the Trust's share of the Davey money “will be used to fund the final pro rata payment”; the Trust has not published how the rest of the final payment is covered.

October 14, 2026 is the date the Trust makes the distribution. How fast it reaches you depends on whether you have a lawyer. Without a lawyer, the Trust pays you directly by the method on your Payment Election Form: ACH transfer, check, or — for individuals — Zelle. With a lawyer, the Trust pays the firm by ACH or check, and the firm then pays you; we found no deadline from the Trust for that second step. Ask your firm, or its escrow agent, when it will pass on the October 14 money and what it will deduct.

Moved, new email, new phone? Unrepresented claimants change their mailing address in the Trust's online Portal: open the Claimant Details screen, click Edit Claimant Details and update the Current Mailing Address. Represented claimants have no Portal of their own — the Trust says you “will need to discuss your claims status with your lawyer,” so give the firm your new details.

No payment? The Claims Processor, the law firm BrownGreer PLC, answers at 1-888-664-1152, info@firevictimtrust.com, fax 1-804-404-8987, or by mail at Fire Victim Trust, P.O. Box 25936, Richmond, VA 23260. Do not write to Kroll: it handled Proofs of Claim in PG&E's bankruptcy and, the Trust says, “is not responsible for receiving and processing information related to your Fire Victim Trust claims.” Three rules can explain a missing payment. Releases: the deadline was August 15, 2024, and claimants who did not return both signed releases “will not receive any further distributions from the Trust.” Minors and incapacitated claimants: the Special Master must approve each award, and the money goes into protected accounts such as blocked accounts or structured settlements, not into a parent's checking account. Liens: medical-lien holdbacks and attorney or other liens asserted against an award are deducted from the payment or held back until resolved. As of August 31, 2026, 66,171 of the 66,530 eligible claimants — 99 percent — had received payment. We found no statement from the Trust on what happens to final-payment money that cannot be delivered.

The final payment does not reopen the Trust. It stopped accepting new Claims Questionnaires on September 15, 2023, and anyone who did not file a Proof of Claim in the bankruptcy by December 31, 2019 is ineligible unless the Bankruptcy Court allows a late claim. The Trust says its data will be kept for ten years.

A final payment is a magnet for fraud, and two of the Trust's alerts describe the tricks. In October 2020 it reported calls from scammers: one caller asked a Fire Victim “to discuss certain benefits relating to her PG&E Claim”; another posed as an insurance company, claimed an overpayment and gave instructions to send money. In August 2022 it warned of “email spoofing and counterfeit checks, potentially involving scammers seeking to defraud Claimants and lawyers.” The Trust's own rules for spotting a fake:

• If you have a lawyer and the Trust has that on file, “Fire Victim Trust representatives will not call you.” Someone calling as the Trust: end the call and phone your lawyer.
• “Agents in the Fire Victim Trust Call Center will never ask you for your Portal login information.”
• Check sender addresses and links character by character — scammers change “only one letter, symbol, or number.”
• If someone you do not know and trust asks for money in connection with the Trust, “stop the communications and do not send any money to anyone.”
• A suspicious check: ask your lawyer to verify it; without a lawyer, call 1-888-664-1152 or email info@firevictimtrust.com. For a counterfeit check, also notify the bank whose name is on it.

Fraud can be reported anonymously on the Trust's Report Fraud page, and to the FTC, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for mail fraud, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) or your state or local consumer protection agency.

The Trust was formed on July 1, 2020, when PG&E's plan of reorganization, confirmed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali on June 20, 2020, took effect. Its tally as of August 31, 2026: 40,407 Claims Questionnaires on behalf of 71,787 claimants, asserting 254,776 distinct claims; a Determination Notice for every one of them; 66,530 claimants (93 percent) found eligible; $19.57 billion awarded and $13.72 billion paid. By our arithmetic, the final 71.25 percent corresponds to roughly $13.94 billion of the awards. The Trust covers only the Butte, North Bay and Camp fires; claims unrelated to them are ineligible.

On August 24, 2026, the Trustee wrote a letter responding to what she called “recent statements regarding the Fire Victim Trust processes and payments to claimants and attorneys,” without naming who made them. Her points: the Fire Victim Trust “was not a class action settlement. No money was paid to class members, or class action attorneys”; each claim was evaluated individually; the money went out “over the course of five years on a pro rata basis” as it became available; and lawyers were paid under their own clients' fee agreements, never ahead of their clients. In the same letter she put the total she oversaw at $14.28 billion in Trust assets distributed to over 70,000 claimants — a different figure from the $13.72 billion the progress report counts as paid to claimants; the letter does not break down the difference.