Arkansas Welcomes P/C Insurers Lemonade, Tower Hill

Two additional property/casualty insurance carriers have been approved to conduct business in Arkansas.

The Arkansas Insurance Department (AID) announced in December that Lemonade Insurance Co., has received a Certificate of Authority to sell property/casualty and marine products in Arkansas with an initial limit to renters insurance. Gainesville, Fla.-based Tower Hill Signature Insurance Co. (THS) has been approved to begin selling residential property insurance products.

A New York-domiciled P/C insurance company offering renters and home insurance policies, Lemonade was created in 2016 and is a subsidiary of Lemonade Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Lemonade offers renters insurance through a mobile application.

In a statement, Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr said “Lemonade is a company focused on using technology, artificial intelligence, and bots to innovate the insurance industry while promoting nonprofit giving through its annual ‘Giveback’ program of underwriting profits.”

Lemonade is a Certified B-Corp, where underwriting profits are contributed to nonprofits. The company receives a flat 20 percent fee, treating premiums as belonging to the policyholders. The company returns “unclaimed money” during its annual Giveback, in which undistributed profits each year are donated to causes that customers elect.

Lemonade currently writes business in five other states.

THS was formed in 2006 and currently writes residential property products in Texas and Florida. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tower Hill Signature Insurance Holdings Inc., which is owned by Tower Hill Insurance Holdings, the largest writer of full coverage, single family homes in Florida.

The Tower Hill group is primarily held by majority owner William Shively. The group includes five insurers writing residential property business with approximately 80 percent in homeowners coverage and 20 percent in mobile home and commercial insurance.

THS uses an affiliated managing general agent to write and administer all of its homeowners business.

Tower Hill Prime Insurance Co., the lead company in the group, maintains an A.M. Best rating of A- (excellent).

Tower Hill is the 29th new insurance company to which Kerr has granted authority in 2017.

Since becoming commissioner in 2015, Kerr has welcomed 64 new companies to Arkansas.

Kerr said that going forward into 2018, the AID “will continue its aggressive recruitment of new companies by showing that our state is open for business.”