Kin Insurance, a US insurtech and primary carrier focused on home insurance for catastrophe-exposed areas, has reported that its gross loss from Hurricane Ian will remain “well below” the top of its $800 million overall reinsurance tower.
To date, Kin has received approximately 6,800 claims related to Hurricane Ian.
But thanks to its reinsurance coverage, Kin will only retain $5 million of costs, split equally between its reciprocal exchange, Kin Interinsurance Network, and its captive reinsurer, Kincession.
There is also the possibility that Kin’s Hestia Re cat bond will come into play, which attaches at $125 million of losses, but the effective gross loss attachment is actually higher as Kin’s FHCF cover inures to the benefit of the bond.
While it remains to early to say for sure whether Hestia Re will face a loss, assuming an average claim cost of $24,000 multiplied across the 6,800 claim reported by Kin would put losses at some $170 million.
“Between our strong reinsurance program and our continuous investments in technology, operations, staffing, and partnerships, we were well-prepared to handle a major catastrophe like Ian,” said Sean Harper, CEO of Kin.
Kin Interinsurance network finalised its reinsurance program for the year back in June, when it upgraded its coverage to offer 160 year first-event loss protection, or $770m in reinsurance coverage for hurricanes, across all states and policies.
This placement represeneds a 150% increase over 2021, which had included over $300m in reinsurance for hurricane events, and is backed by a panel of 40 reinsurers, including eight new partners, all of which have a financial rating of A- or higher from AM Best.
Kin says that it ultimately had 23,819 insured risks in the wind field footprint of Hurricane Ian with wind speeds of 50mph or higher, and was able to use imagery captured by airplanes flying after the storm to analyze 40,000 insured locations.
“Technology and data science are really important in insurance, and they’re at the center of everything that we do to help customers and meet them where they are,” said Angel Conlin, Chief Insurance Officer at Kin. “We could accurately predict which policyholders were going to feel the effects of Ian, and our claims team was ready to provide immediate help and put them on a path to recovery.”
