Lighthouse Property to acquire Prepared Insurance of Florida

The acquisition remains subject to official regulatory review as well as approval before it is finalized.

Prepared Insurance of Florida, a domiciled P & C carrier in that state and Louisiana is to be acquired by Lighthouse Property Insurance Co. of Louisiana.

This move doesn’t come as a surprise as efforts have been made for the acquisition since 2017.

Lighthouse is authorized to write coverage in Louisiana as well as North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Prepared Insurance of Florida is authorized for writing in Florida as well Louisiana. The acquisition awaits regulatory review as well as official approval before it can move forward.

“In light of the current legal and regulatory challenges facing the Florida homeowners insurance market, we believe that our Prepared policyholders, my Prepared Holdings co-investors, and our insurance enterprise as a whole will be best served by the financial strength of a unified carrier,’ said Lighthouse controlling shareholder, Patrick White. White currently serves as CEO of both insurers after having obtained a majority interest in Prepared back in 2017.

Following the acquisition, Lighthouse intends to assume the Prepared Insurance of Florida portfolio.

Once the acquisition is complete, Lighthouse intends to take over the acquired portfolio. It will be using its newly owned carrier to write directly in Florida. Furthermore, Lighthouse plans to assume all the acquired insurer’s assets and liabilities. Once that is complete, the carrier that will result will have a statutory surplus of over $45 million. This includes the wholly owned Lighthouse Excalibur Insurance Company (Lighthouse Excalibur) which was acquired by Lighthouse nearly a year ago, in May 2019.

The resulting insurer will providehomeowners insurance coverage to about 175,000 homes throughout the US Southeast. By the close of 2019, Lighthouse Excalibur had a statutory surplus of about $11.5 million. The combined companies will have a gross written premium of over $275 million.

Prepared Insurance of Florida is based in Tampa. It first received its license to write in 2009. It sells a spectrum of property coverage products including homeowners, renters, condo, flood, and dwelling fire. By Q3 2019, it had 32,018 active policies and had brought in $63.5 million in total premiums, according to Florida Office of Insurance Regulation data.