UPC sells its NFIP flood insurance book to Wright National

Property and casualty insurer UPC Insurance, part of United Insurance Holdings Corp., has sold off its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) book to specialist Wright National Flood Insurance Company.

The move allows United (UPC) to transfer over the NFIP Write Your Own flood insurance book, so allowing the carrier to focus on its private insurance market business instead.

It also shifts pure flood risk off UPC’s balance-sheet, as the carrier tends to more wind and multi-peril focused these days.

The transaction is slated to close on June 30th 2022, subject to approval by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), after which Wright Flood will service, administer, and issue flood coverage under the NFIP for UPC Insurance policyholders and agents.

From Q3 2022, Wright Flood will manage UPC Insurance’s NFIP flood placements, with all new policies and renewals issued by Wright National Flood Insurance Company.

As part of this sale of renewal rights, Wright Flood will pay $3.6 million in cash to UPC, while Wright Flood will also be responsible for up to $200,000 of costs associated with the transfer of the policies. UPC will be responsible for any costs in excess of that level.

Wright National Flood Insurance Services President Patricia Templeton-Jones commented on the news,”United Property and Casualty Company has been around since 1999 for its policyholders and agent partners. We are excited to carry on that long history and provide our experience in the flood insurance industry to create a smooth transition during this process.

“Wright Flood has long been a premier provider of NFIP flood coverage and private flood insurance options for both homeowners and businesses,” she added. “That dates back to 1983 when it was one of the first Write Your Own (“WYO”) participants in the National Flood Insurance Program. We have been diligent in staying current on all of the updates with Risk Rating 2.0 and look forward to providing those insights with our new agent partners and policyholders.”

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Wright for the sale of UPC Insurance’s NFIP flood book of business,” added UPC Insurance’s Chief Information and Chief Operating Officer Chris Griffith. “Wright’s excellent reputation in the flood space and specialized knowledge of the NFIP Write Your Own program will serve the dynamic needs of UPC Insurance’s NFIP policyholders and agents.”

UPC and United Insurance Holdings can now increase its focus on core business areas of property insurance, with what can be a time-consuming to manage and administer NFIP flood insurance book now off their hands.

The company had previously announced it was pulling-back on writing some new Florida homeowners’ business, citing recent years of catastrophe losses, rising reinsurance costs and still growing litigation related costs and then announced a consolidation of its Florida property insurance activities as well.

At its reinsurance renewal this year, UPC restructured its reinsurance coverage to an occurrence tower, instead of the cascading aggregate reinsurance protection the insurer had in prior years.