Celebrating Mangrove’s First Year: Partnerships, Purpose and Progress

As we reflect on our first year of operations at Mangrove Property Insurance Company, we have much to be grateful for. And so, it was both fitting and fun to celebrate this milestone with many of our partners and friends at a recent event in Bermuda.

From the outset, Mangrove was built on a foundation of partnerships: in particular, with Florida’s independent agent community who is the lifeblood of our
distribution model, and with the global reinsurers who have long been the bedrock of the Florida property market across my three-decade career. We also set out to be good corporate citizens, and earn the trust of rating agencies like Demotech, and the regulators and government officials who oversee our business and markets. We were honored that nearly 200 representatives from these stakeholder groups, along with many old friends, joined us in Bermuda. And I was especially proud to bring a large delegation from Team Mangrove to share in the celebration.

Why Bermuda?

Demotech subscribers will be familiar with the critical role Bermuda’s reinsurance market plays in Florida. Simply put, without Bermuda, the modern Florida homeowners’ market would not exist. The converse is also true. The mutually beneficial Florida-Bermuda trading relationship is one of the most important in the world. From a technical perspective, the financing and risk-transfer model collectively developed since Hurricane Andrew has proven to be the most efficient way to manage the world’s peak risk: Florida windstorm. Over the past three decades, this framework has been reinforced by strategic partnerships, distribution models, and enduring relationships that have grown and evolved alongside it. Together, these “hard” and “soft” elements, technical discipline and relational trust, are what allow this market structure to function and thrive.

Moreover, but not by coincidence, for most of the last quarter century, Bermuda has been my home. I can’t fully express how grateful I am to be in business, not just with collaborative partners, technical experts, wise advisers, and globally significant balance sheets, but friends. It’s for all these reasons that Mangrove’s inaugural reinsurance program wasn’t merely successful, but record setting. I’m grateful we were able to thank many of our reinsurance partners in person at this event.

Florida Agents: Our Core Commitment

Mangrove is dedicated to supporting and collaborating with Florida’s independent agents. Today, we have business, and accordingly agents we support, in all 67 counties in Florida. At our Bermuda event, we were honored to host some of the leaders of Florida’s independent agents trade groups, including Al Mendez, president of the Latin American Association of Independent Agents; and Dave Newall, vice president of Industry Relations at the Florida Association of Independent Agents. Mendez and Newall embraced the sprit and ethos of the event with gusto and were exceptional ambassadors from the Florida market to the global reinsurers gathered.

Broker Partnerships: Gallagher Re

Bermuda is a broker market; and Florida homeowners carriers like Mangrove thrive in partnership with skilled intermediaries. I’m proud of our founding partnership with Gallagher Re; and grateful that we were joined at this event by James Bradshaw, chair of Gallagher Re N.A.; Geoff Lubert, president of Gallagher Re N.A.; Lara Mowery, global chief commercial officer; Adam Schwebach, head of property for North America, and other members of Gallagher Re’s broking, securities and ILS leadership teams. We prefer a partnership approach, and no partnership has been more instrumental in our inaugural success than Gallagher.

Demotech Rated

Nearly every employee at Mangrove has been engaged in the Florida homeowners business across cycles, for as much as two to three decades. That’s also true of many of our business partners and advisers. And of course it’s true about Demotech, which has been a leader in the Florida market across my career. In 2017, Demotech wrote that “Claims procedures, processes, and protocols utilized in [Florida] must be replicable in the future if loss experience is to be predictable and claims handling scalable … “The (AOB) situation in Florida is unlike any other in the United States and two recent court decisions, Johnson (September 2016) and Sebo (December 2016), have also revised claims procedures, practices, and protocols from the industry standards that previously existed to a ‘Florida only’ standard.”

This was not Demotech’s first written analysis regarding Florida’s unique challenges. It is fair to say that many of Demotech’s long-standing observations about Florida-appropriate procedures, practices and protocols are reflected in Mangrove’s strategic approach.

Our Name, Our Philosophy

I am sometimes asked, including by the team at Demotech, about the import of our name, Mangrove. We are passionate about our identity and our brand, and our name reflects some core elements of our strategy and philosophy. Mangroves are strong and resilient; an individual mangrove tree can withstand storm conditions that are fatal to most trees and plants. Moreover, taken together, a healthy mangrove ecosystem can help protect the terrain, homes and people behind it — but only as part of a robust, functioning system. And mangroves are found in both Florida and Bermuda. We formed Mangrove with roots in each of my homes.

Looking Ahead

What we do at Mangrove is important. We are combining an unparalleled investment in risk transfer protection, market-setting expertise, centuries of aggregate accumulated Florida market experience, our unmatched claims ethos and structure manifest in our Grove Repair Solution, and our partnership ecosystem to support our policyholders with a new standard of excellence and sustainability. This mission fills our team with purpose and clarity. We also say that it’s supposed to be fun. As I reflect on the conclusion of our first year, I’m suffused with gratitude for the partners and friends who contributed to our success thus far. Together we will tackle the challenges and embrace the growth opportunities of the future. And we’ll enjoy the journey along the way.