Exclusive: Burns & Wilcox launches Atain-backed high-value homeowners cat program

By James Thaler

April 8 - (The Insurer) - Burns & Wilcox has launched an exclusive high-value homeowners program focused on catastrophe-exposed areas such as California, the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic states, Colorado and Florida, backed by A-rated paper from HW Kaufman carrier Atain Insurance Companies.

The new product is being offered by Burns & Wilcox’s national personal insurance practice and can be paired with a new contents-only product.

A spokesperson for Burns & Wilcox, which is the largest personal lines wholesaler in the U.S. by written premium volume, confirmed the new product’s launch and said that the contents-only product will “provide a more complete solution for retail insurance agents and their insureds”.

“Following the January wildfires in California, it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure homeowners coverage across the U.S.,” Bill Gatewood, Burns & Wilcox’s personal insurance practice leader and corporate senior vice president, said in a statement.

“We are excited to step in, bring additional capacity and deliver to the marketplace a much-needed solution,” Gatewood continued.

“Burn & Wilcox is proud of our long track record of successful underwriting. Our team’s acumen, coupled with the trusted partnership with Atain, makes this a great opportunity to extend our leadership position in the high-value homeowners market,” Gatewood added. Burns & Wilcox, like Atain, is part of HW Kaufman.

Appointed agents can contact their local Burns & Wilcox office to access the new high-value homeowners product.

“We have worked hard to firmly establish a strong reputation for Burns & Wilcox in the marketplace,” Gatewood said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Our expectation is that in the coming months, we will have additional backing to extend the TIV within these policies even further,” he concluded.

Speaking to The Insurer TV in January after the onset of the Los Angeles wildfires, Gatewood said the insurance industry must re-examine how it underwrites wildfire risk.

He added that even before they were extinguished the wildfires had begun to drive a shift in market conditions, while predicting that the potential fine art loss component will be “huge”.