By Chris Munro

April 17 - (The Insurer) - Patriot Select Property & Casualty Insurance Company has secured regulatory approval from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FLOIR) to write admitted homeowners business in the Sunshine State.

St Petersburg, Florida-based Patriot Select is the rebooted Anchor Property & Casualty Insurance Company which first launched in 2014 and was subsequently approved to take out policies from Citizens, the state’s insurer of last resort.

Anchor's founding management team included Mitch Sattler as CEO and Jennifer Pintacuda as CFO.

However, after suffering repeated losses and its capital and surplus falling significantly in 2019, Anchor was placed under regulatory supervision in 2020.

After Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Company agreed to acquire all the insurance policies of Anchor in early 2020, and Weston Insurance inked a deal to buy affiliated Texas carrier Anchor Specialty Insurance and its associated MGA, there was little left of the company other than a shell.

John Rollins joined Anchor as CEO in late 2023 amid expectations that the former Citizens executive would work to reboot the company as a live underwriting entity amid an improved regulatory environment in Florida.

The company has now relaunched as Patriot Select, having secured new capital backing, and it preparing to begin underwriting a portfolio of standard homeowners' HO-3 business.

On April 14, FLOIR announced that the conditions justifying its supervision over Patriot Select “have been remedied”.

In the announcement, FLOIR said Patriot Select “shall be released from supervision and may resume the transaction of homeowners’ insurance in the state of Florida” provided the carrier meet certain requirements.

Those requirements include approval of forms, rules and rates, placement of its reinsurance program and a financial strength rating $(FSR)$ “that is acceptable to the secondary mortgage market”.

Insurance Advisory Partners $(IAP.AU)$ served as Patriot Select’s exclusive financial advisor and placement agent for the promissory notes and surplus notes raised to secure the funding the carrier needed to re-enter Florida’s homeowners’ market. IAP said that the rebooted business expects to obtain an FSR that is acceptable to all mortgage markets during the second quarter.

IAP, which is led by managing partners David Kimmel, Tony Ursano and Clive Buesnel, said the capital raised came from “a consortium of institutional investors, individual investors and strategic partners”.

Along with serving Citizens as chief risk officer, Rollins’ career includes time at Evans Insurance Holdings, as well as Gemini Financial Holdings, the parent of Olympus Insurance Company, Milliman and Cabrillo Coastal General Insurance Agency.

At Patriot Select, Rollins works alongside chief operating officer Kelly Booten and chief financial officer Marcia Lamb.

While not a new entry into the market, Patriot Select is the 13th P&C insurer approved by FLOIR to begin writing business in Florida since legislative reforms were passed in 2022 and 2023

Those reforms were introduced to help combat abusive litigation practices by plaintiffs’ attorneys that historically caused claims costs to soar, and made it difficult for insurers to operate in the state.

Among the other 12 carriers to have launched in Florida are Apex Star Reciprocal Exchange and Mangrove Property Insurance Company, both of which were given the green light to go live by FLOIR earlier this year.

The others new Florida insurers approved since the 2022/2023 reforms are ASI Select Insurance, Trident Reciprocal Exchange, Ovation Home Insurance Exchange, Manatee Insurance Exchange, Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange, Orange Insurance Exchange, Orion180 Select Insurance Company, Orion180 Insurance Company, Mainsail Insurance Company and Tailrow Insurance Exchange.