Business Moves

Prepared Insurance, Florida

Florida approved a new homeowners insurance company that plans to focus on what it says is the underserved market of homes built before 2002. Prepared Insurance Co., headquartered in Tampa, is also promising to offer a broad policy with property coverage, including windstorm, as well as more than a dozen optional endorsements, such as home computer coverage, golf cart coverage and animal liability.

The firm is lead by Doug Raucy, president and chief executive officer. Raucy was the chief operating officer for the Institute for Business and Home Safety, a trade association that focuses on disaster-resistant structure research and education, from 2001 to 2008. Before that, he managed the catastrophe division at Allstate Insurance Co.

According to Raucy and his team, many carriers in Florida are using an “age of home” criterion as their primary underwriting tool, leaving homes that were built prior to 2002 with fewer coverage options in the private market. Prepared says more than 80 percent of Florida’s homes fall into this age category. Instead of using age, Raucy wants to offer coverage based on “specific, verifiable construction characteristics that historically perform well.” Thus many homes, regardless of when they were built, could be underwritten.

Stephanie Siewert, vice president of sales and marketing, said many Florida agents have few options for these older homes other than the state-backed insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. She said Prepared will write coastal homes “but very selectively.”

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has issued Prepared a certificate of authority and the company will begin selling in Florida during the fourth quarter. Prepared plans to appoint about 150 independent agents, with about 70 percent of them in central and northeastern counties. About 15 percent will be in the three biggest coastal counties.

NAMIC

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies welcomed 10 new members into its Century Club, recognizing them for serving policyholders for 100 years. The Club has more than 660 members. Combined, they have served policyholders for nearly 84,000 years, which, NAMIC figures, would reach from the present well beyond recorded human history and into the Paleolithic Era.

The new Century Club members are: Bear River Mutual Insurance Co., Murray, Utah; Bedford Grange Mutual Insurance Co., Bedford, Pa.; Clark Farm Mutual Insurance Co., Clark, S.D.; Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Co., Plentywood, Mont.; Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Co. of Jefferson County Tennessee, Dandridge, Tenn.; Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co., Grinnell, Iowa; McMinn County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Co., Athens, Tenn.; Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Co., Algona, Iowa; Sauers Mutual Insurance Co., Seymour, Ind. and Tri-County Mutual Town Insurance Co., Iron River, Wis.