Orion180, a property insurance and surplus lines carrier founded in Melbourne, Florida, in 2016, has now started writing policies in the state where it is headquartered. And it is doing so with what appears to be an unusual strategy: Rebates on the first year of premiums for homes that stay claims-free.
Most property insurers offer some types of discounts on premiums — for wind mitigation work, bundling of policies, alarm systems, and for a lack of claims, in some cases. But actual cash equal to a full year’s premium seems to be pretty rare in the industry.
“We are not aware of any other insurers” offering similar rebates, Orion180 CEO Ken Gregg said in an email.
“The concept is not new in insurance but it’s new in Florida,” said Scott Johnson, a longtime insurance educator and consultant in Florida.
In the last few years, Orion has slowly expanded its reach, adding policies in Georgia and South Carolina in 2021; in Mississippi and Alabama in 2023; North Carolina and other states in 2024, and Texas in February of this year. It was approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation in 2023 to do business in Florida, but until now has not offered products in the Sunshine State.
In an announcement this week, the company said it is launching what it calls FLEX homeowners coverage in 14 coastal counties in Florida, two months after it launched a similar product in Texas. The idea is to offer insureds a wider range of options on base perils, deductibles and even copays, along with the rebates and a feature that will allow residents to extend the policy at its existing premium, the company said.
“Standard home insurance policies are outdated for today’s consumer, and a lot of time do not align with the individual’s budget and interest,” Gregg said in a statement.
The coverage will be through the firm’s surplus lines carrier, known as Orion180 Insurance. Because it is a surplus lines insurer, terms of the rebate program do not have to be approved by OIR. The surplus firm’s sister company, Orion180 Select Insurance Co., is admitted in Florida as a homeowners and allied lines carrier but it has yet to write policies in the state, although it has made filings with OIR.
Why is Orion180 entering the storm-tossed Florida homeowners market now?
“Floridians have recently experienced a barrage of Citizen’s takeout offers, which has effectively commoditized the homeowners insurance market,” Gregg said in an email, referring to the state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corp. “We believe residents are ready for an innovative homeowners solution that puts the power of choice back into their hands, and that independent agents are ready for product differentiation in this competitive personal lines landscape.”
The FLEX program is available through select insurance agents in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Lee, Sarasota, Manatee, Brevard, St. Lucie, Collier, Martin, Charlotte, and Indian River counties.
About those rebates: The cash back would be available under three options in the FLEX program. If claims-free for five years, the policyholder would see 25% of the first year’s premium; or they could opt for a vanishing non-weather deductible. If the property produces no claims for 10 years, the insured would receive 100% of the first year’s premium in the form of a cash payment, the company explained.
Locking in premiums for a subsequent time frame, while not uncommon in life insurance plans, is pretty rare in the property-casualty arena. Florida law requires insurers to offer premium payment plans, but not a freeze on premiums. Orion180 did not say what conditions insureds would have to meet to qualify for rate locking.
The key questions include: How will Orion premiums compare to others, and for how long can insureds lock in the rate, Johnson said. Gregg said the rate lock would be good for the following policy year, then the premium would reset for year three.
Years ago, it was common for insurers to offer multi-year, prepaid policies with premiums that would not change for at least three years, but that approach has not been seen from most carriers for decades, Johnson noted.
Orion180 is among a dozen new property insurers in the last two years to enter the Florida market, a market that until recently was beset with heavy claims litigation costs, insurer insolvencies and exits from the state, and sharply rising premiums.
Gregg this week did not mention the historic 2022-2023 legislative changes that aimed to ameliorate those issues, but in 2023 he told Insurance Journal: “I think the reforms and what the state has done and what the department is doing have made it so the time is right.”
Orion180 Insurance last year earned a BBB+ financial rating and “stable” outlook from the KBRA rating agency. The firm is due for a new KBRA rating in June.
Topics Florida New Markets
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