United (UPC) partners with Tokio Marine Kiln on Floridian insurer Journey

A new Florida domiciled property and casualty insurance company start-up has been launched by United Insurance Holdings (UPC Insurance) in partnership with Tokio Marine Kiln, which will help the firms expand their footprint and exposure in the state.

Journey Insurance Company will be 66.7% owned by UPC and 33.3% by R.J. Kiln & Co. (No. 3) Limited, a subsidiary of Tokio Marine Kiln Group Limited, which is itself an affiliate of the Tokio Marine Group.

Journey Insurance Company willi initially be focused on offering homeowners and commercial residential property insurance in the states of Florida, Texas and South Carolina.

The company has been given an “A-“ Financial Strength Rating and “a-“ Issuer Credit Rating with stable outlooks from rating agency A.M. Best and has had its license approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation as a Florida domiciled property and casualty insurance company.

“Journey marks the fifth insurance company in the UPC family, and the first one to be rated by A.M. Best,” commented John Forney, President & CEO of UPC Insurance. “We’re thrilled to be able to launch this new partnership with Tokio Marine and we appreciate their support. Journey gives us an exciting new way to grow our business in key markets by serving customers and distribution channels we previously could not reach. We can’t wait to get started.”

In rating Journey Insurance A.M. Best noted that it will be concentrated on property risks and will have a corresponding dependence on reinsurance, which is unsurprising given UPC’s broad use of reinsurance as a tool to manage exposures and protect itself against the peak hurricane perils in the states it underwrites.

The rating agency highlighted that Journey’s “comprehensive reinsurance program” would provide both horizontal and vertical protection against severe weather-related events, which is similar to UPC’s.

UPC’s reinsurance program renewed at $3.1 billion in size this year and features the majority of the major ILS markets. as participants.

As a result it’s expected that Journey’s reinsurance program will result in more collateralized reinsurance and ILS capacity being required to back the underwriting portfolio, providing opportunities for the leading ILS managers to deepen their relationships with UPC and TMK.