Stand, a property insurance and risk mitigation company that uses advanced models to assess catastrophe risk at the individual household level, has launched the first voluntary hurricane insurance product in Florida.
The launch marks the expansion of the company’s activities in the state and reflects its strategy of linking insurance pricing to property-level resilience improvements.
The new product is designed with the idea that homeowners can reduce their risk of hurricane damage and insurance costs by making targeted upgrades to their properties. Rather than relying primarily on historical loss data and geographic risk assessments, Stand said it assesses how specific building features impact a home’s ability to withstand severe weather events.
At the heart of the project is the company’s proprietary Stand World Model, a physics-based platform for analyzing how catastrophic events interact with individual structures. According to Stander, the technology examines a property’s characteristics to estimate how it will perform under extreme conditions and identify areas where resiliency can be improved. The model, originally developed and tested in California communities at risk from wildfires, has been adapted for hurricane-related hazards in Florida.
Stand also offers support to homeowners looking to strengthen their properties. The company works with approved contractors to help identify appropriate mitigation measures and assist in coordinating improvement projects. For some early customers, Stand provides smart water leak detection equipment and covers the cost of monitoring for the first year. The company also receives discounted rates through select contractors and may provide financing assistance for qualifying mitigation work.
Homeowners who complete qualifying upgrades may receive long-term premium relief, the insurer said. Depending on the characteristics of the property and the improvements made, measures such as installing roof anchor clamps and shutoff valves can reduce homeowners insurance premiums by up to 40%.
The launch is Stand’s first open market insurance product in Florida. The company previously entered the state through the Florida Citizen Depopulation Program, which shifted policies from state-backed insurers of last resort to private market operators. Stander said the new product is intended to expand coverage options for qualified homeowners outside of the framework.
Florida’s property insurance market faces ongoing challenges, with recurring hurricane losses putting pressure on insurers and policyholders. Over the past two decades, rising claims costs and carrier failures have led to increased reliance on Citizen. Since 1980, 94 weather and climate disasters have occurred in the state, causing at least $1 billion in damage, according to Stander.
Commenting on the launch, Stand co-founder and CEO Dan Preston said: “Aerospace engineers have been modeling how wind tears apart structures for decades, and science is at the heart of how we think about home safety. We’re bringing that same rigor to Florida, working with homeowners to understand what makes their homes stronger and rewarding them for the actions they take, rather than charging them more just because of where they live.”
Stand said its Florida operations are supported by a team with deep experience in the state’s insurance industry, while its applied physics division combines expertise in aerospace engineering, machine learning and 3D modeling to assess disaster risk at the individual household level.
The company underwrites and services policies and services issued by Concert Specialty Insurance Company. Concert Specialty Insurance Company holds policies with an A- financial strength rating from AM Best of California, and policies issued and serviced by Stand Insurance Exchange, which has an A-rating from Demotech of Florida. Stand said its insurance programs are backed by a group of highly rated reinsurers, including Arch, RenaissanceRe, Hannover Re, Nephila and Hiscox. The company is backed by investors including Eclipse, Inspired Capital and Lowercarbon.
