The insurance subsidiaries of Universal Holdings have completed their 2020-2021 reinsurance programs, effective June 1, 2020.
“We are pleased to announce the completion and outcome of the 2020-2021 reinsurance programs for both of our insurance companies,” said Jon W. Springer, President and Chief Risk Officer of the Company.
“We are in unprecedented times and our reinsurance partners have once again provided us with the comprehensive reinsurance we desire for the 2020 hurricane season in the face of tremendous financial uncertainty across the global markets. We have been significant buyers of peak zone catastrophe reinsurance provided by professional reinsurers for more than 20 years.
“These reinsurers understand the true nature of reinsurance cycles and the importance of the counterparties they select. While our reinsurance costs are justifiably up over last year for a variety of factors, including indirect macro drivers, the changes are reasonable and, importantly, the quality of the coverage purchased for our policyholders remains intact.”
Due to reducing capacity provided to Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company by the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and an expanded need for reinstatement premium protection, UPCIC purchased more open market capacity than ever before and set the top of its reinsurance tower for a single Florida event to $3.26 billion.
$1.3 billion of this coverage has limits that automatically reinstate to guarantee a certain level of protection in multi-event scenarios.
To further insulate for future years, UPCIC secured $197 million of new catastrophe capacity with contractually agreed limits that extend coverage to include the 2021 and 2022 wind seasons.
In total, UPCIC has $420 million of multi-year capacity with coverage extending to include the 2021 wind season or beyond, all of which is below the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund layer, where reinsurance costs are the highest.
UPCIC’s first event catastrophe retention for a Florida loss was retained at $43 million. A $43 million retention loss would represent less than 6.4% on an after-tax basis of UVE’s stockholder’s equity as of March 31, 2020.
UPCIC increased its first event catastrophe retention for a loss involving states other than Florida from $10 million to $15 million. This change in Non-Florida retention comes following growing Non-Florida premium in-force by more than 25% over the past year.
