Message from the President of UPC Insurance concerning the Hurricanes of 2017
From the Desk of
John Forney, UPC Insurance Company Florida
Dear Ernest,
Two of UPC Insurance’s foundations are Financial Stability and Superior Claims Service.
If your customers that are our policyholders have been impacted by Hurricane Harvey or are impacted by Hurricane Irma, you are about to see both of these in action.
On the Claims Side:
We have an amazing in-house claims team led by Scott St. John, who joined us last year after over twenty years with Farmers. At Farmers, Scott ran their national catastrophe team, and was in charge of those operations for Hurricanes Ike and Rita, among many other events. He knows how to staff and operate a large-scale catastrophe claims operation.
In addition to our in-house claims team, we have secured the services of over 450 dedicated catastrophe independent adjusters to work on these claims. Many of these adjusters already work with our firm, since our large size and geographic footprint from Texas to Massachusetts mean we handle cat claims every month. Our integration from a systems and logistics standpoint with our independent cat adjusters is tested and strong.
We will be rolling out early next week on our website a simple way for UPC policyholders to upload pictures and video of any hurricane damages, which will greatly facilitate the rapid adjudication of claims.
On the Financial Side:
We have over $550 million of capital in our company, and purchase over $2.8 billion of reinsurance, ALL of which is available for first and multiple events. Fortunately, it appears at this time that Harvey losses will not use any of our reinsurance capacity, so all of it will be available to pay Irma losses.
No historical event – not the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, not Andrew, not Donna, not a repeat of 2004 or 2005 – would even erode half our reinsurance coverage if it were to happen today. No scenario of Hurricane Irma looks to be more severe than these events, so you need not worry about our ability to pay losses.
We buy our reinsurance in a unique way that gives us far more ability to pay losses than other companies. Over 90% of our private reinsurance is fully cash collateralized with money in a trust that we control. We therefore have no concerns about timing or access to reinsurance money after Irma.
We wish you all health and safety in the wake of these two storms. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you, personally or professionally. If there are any glitches in our service to you or your customers in the coming days and weeks, please let us know and we will get them fixed immediately. But, with all there is to worry about, you need not worry at all about UPC Insurance’s resources and resolve to Keep the Promise to our policyholders.
All the best,
John Forney, CFA
President & Chief Executive Officer
Keep the Promise®
Count on us at the time of greatest need.
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