New Hurricane Insurer Enters Hawaii Market

Hawaii Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt has announced the formation of a business association between First Insurance Company of Hawai’i (FICOH) and AXIS Insurance Co. Through this program, AXIS Insurance Co. will offer hurricane insurance to new and existing FICOH homeowners and dwelling fire policyholders.

Both AXIS Insurance Co. and FICOH are rated “A” by A.M. Best. AXIS Insurance is a wholly owned subsidiary of AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd., a global provider of specialty lines insurance and treaty reinsurance with total capitalization of $6.4 billion as of March 31, 2010.

“This partnership between our oldest local insurance company, First Insurance, and AXIS Insurance Co. will bring additional world class protection to the homeowners of Hawaii,” Schmidt said. “It has been one of this administration’s long-term strategic goals to assure easier and more affordable access to hurricane and other lines of insurance to our state’s businesses and consumers.”

FICOH expects to begin transferring approximately 13,000 existing hurricane policies to AXIS Insurance over the next year as the policies come up for renewal. The process is expected to begin this fall. The policies will be issued with the same basic terms and coverage limits.

FICOH will continue to write the primary homeowners and dwelling fire coverage, and will service both the primary insurance policy and the AXIS hurricane policy. AXIS hurricane policies will only be sold in conjunction with FICOH primary homeowners or dwelling fire policies.

“I fully expect that the consumers of Hawaii will be well served by this agreement,” Schmidt said. “The net result is that Hawaii consumers will have additional and better insurance choices.”