Catastrophe insurance plays a vital role in helping protect businesses and households from financial losses incurred from natural calamities, including earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires, as well as man-made disasters, for example, explosions and terrorist attacks. And with the US experiencing a surge in natural catastrophes, getting proper coverage has become a necessity for many companies and families.
Aon’s global catastrophe report for the initial half year of 2021 has revealed that the nation accounts for almost half, or $46 billion, of the $93 billion in economic losses due to natural calamities. While the global figure is about a third lower than the 10-year average of $136 billion, the US’s losses were 54% higher than its most memorable half 21st Century average.
1. Selective Insurance
The Branchville, New Jersey-headquartered insurer ranks 761st in Fortune Magazine’s rundown of America’s largest companies in 2021. It primarily serves as a holding company for some of the country’s biggest providers of property and casualty (P&C) insurance and alternative gamble management services. Selective Insurance offers items and services in 27 states and the Area of Columbia through its network of independent agents. Last year, the company’s direct premiums written amounted to $3.2 billion. It is ranked 38th in AM Best’s rundown of largest P&C insurers in the US and fourth in the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) rundown of the nation’s biggest “write-your-own” insurance carriers.
2. Pilot Catastrophe Services
Pilot is an independent insurance adjusting firm based in Mobile, Alabama. It also has offices in Dallas, Texas, and Hudson, Ohio. The company handles claims arising from catastrophic events and has been directly involved in every major disaster the nation has faced since its establishment in 1983. Among the services, Pilot offers are property and auto claims management, flood claims, coastal and inland marine claims, casualty, general and auto liability claims, non-catastrophe claims handling, and inside claims operations.
3. PURE Insurance
PURE Insurance is a member-owned P&C insurer catering exclusively to high-net-worth families. It offers coverages for high-value homes and automobiles, watercraft, jewelry, art, fraud and cyber defense, flood, and personal excess liability. The company’s direct premiums written reached $1.3 billion in 2020. It is based in White Plains, New York.
4. Arrowhead General Insurance Agency
Based in San Diego, California, Arrowhead describes itself as a “national program administrator” and a managing general agency. The company provides P&C insurance items and administrative services for insurers, independent agents, and brokers through its 11,000 agency locations nationwide. Arrowhead’s portfolio comprises more than 30 items, including homeowners, earthquake, auto, business owners, and workers’ compensation policies, and niche-targeted items, for example, those designed for automotive aftermarket, logging and forestry, independent booksellers, manufactured housing dealers, and communities, security alarm installers, and railroad contractors. It has written more than $1.2 billion in premiums.
5. RYZE Claim Solutions
RYZE is a privately held claims services firm with headquarters in Noblesville, Indiana, and Tampa, Florida. It offers P&C claims adjustment services, including flood and catastrophe. The company also provides administration, alternative dispute resolution, audit, re-inspection, and appraisal services.
6. Pacesetter Claims Services
Pacesetter has been providing catastrophic and daily property claims adjusting services since its establishment in 1997. These include flood and appraisal services, outsider administration (TPA), dispute resolution, desk adjusting, and adjuster training. Pacesetter is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with offices in Jacksonville, Florida, and Pasadena, California.
7. California Earthquake Authority
California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is an openly managed and privately funded not-for-profit organization that provides residential earthquake insurance to homeowners and renters in the state. The Sacramento-based insurer boasts more than $19 billion in claim-paying capacity and is the largest provider of residential earthquake insurance in the country. It currently accounts for 66% of all residential earthquake policies sold in California. In 2020, CEA’s direct premiums written amounted to $845.1 million.
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