PartnerRe & Kettle come on board for Amwins’ California wildfire offer

Global specialty insurance broker  Amwins will launch a new $7million excess wildfire product with the support of  Partner Re to complement a self-insured retention plan or the California FAIR programme.

The product, launched by Amwins’ binding and brokerage platform for small P&C and personal lines accounts, Amwins Access, has been developed with capacity from PartnerRe Insurance Solutions Bermuda while AI-driven insurtech Kettle, with its focus on climate-related risks, will provide key data analysis, modelling and pricing, matching markets with appetite.

The single-peril product will provide up to $7 million excess wildfire coverage for residential dwellings with replacement costs of up to $20 million. The product will work with a homeowners / dwelling property (HO/DP) policy that has a minimum $3 million fire or wildfire sublimit, and if there is no underlying wildfire coverage, the self-insured retention (SIR) is a minimum $3 million.

The senior vice president at Amwins Access, Kris Zebratski, commented: “Risk placements in wildfire and other CAT-exposed areas remain challenging, with rates and deductibles continuing to climb. The situation not only presents capacity challenges, but also adds complexity to the coverage placement process, leaving policyholders exposed to significant losses.”

“Within this dynamic market, we’re excited to join with PartnerRe Insurance Solutions Bermuda and Kettle to provide our market partners with profitable results and unparalleled distribution, while also acting as problem solvers for our retail agents, creating innovative products tailored to their unique needs.”

The head of Insurance Programs at PartnerRe, Joel Livingston, added: “Wildfires in California remain challenging – most carriers either will not entertain a risk with the exposure, or they’ll exclude the peril entirely. Thanks to the CatFocus California Wildfire catastrophe model developed by our research team, we are able to further validate Kettle’s modelling approach and provide a reliable benchmark to price this risk. By combining PartnerRe’s know-how with the expertise of Amwins and the capabilities of Kettle, our tri-party effort is poised to be a true game-changer.”

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.