This Week in Programs: Landlord & Homeowners

Conning says fronting growth is slowing while the channel's loss ratios keep developing adversely. Conning reported on August 31 that fronting carriers wrote more than $22 billion of gross premiums in 2025, growth of 17% after 26% in 2024, against 5% for the broader commercial insurance industry. Other liability was the fastest-growing line at 32% and, with commercial auto, accounted for 46% of fronted premium. The ten largest fronting carriers hold roughly 69% of the premium dedicated to managing general agents (MGAs) on Morningstar DBRS data, and fronting companies ceded nearly $19 billion to nonaffiliated reinsurers in 2025. Initial gross accident-year loss ratios have developed adversely in each of the past seven accident years. The report's line detail covers liability more heavily than property. (Insurance Business)

→ For MGA operators and fronting carriers: Seven consecutive accident years of adverse initial development across a $22 billion channel is the argument a fronting carrier brings to your 2027 fee and collateral negotiation, and 69% concentration in ten carriers is how few alternatives a residential program has if it walks.

American Coastal halved its first-event Florida retention with $25.5 million of Armor Re II notes. American Coastal Insurance Company purchased additional reinsurance effective August 1, 2026, lowering its first-event retention from $49 million to $23.5 million through $25.5 million of catastrophe bond notes, Armor Re II Ltd. Series 2026-2, covering Florida named-storm risk. Management said the buy-down cost approximately $8.4 million, which Artemis calculated as a rate-on-line, the premium as a share of the cover bought, approaching 33%. Artemis reported the term as August 1, 2026 to the end of May 2027 with maturity in early June, and treats the indemnity trigger, the $23.5 million attachment point where the cover starts paying, and the $49 million exhaustion point where it runs out as inference rather than company disclosure. (Artemis)

→ For reinsurers/ILS and condo/HOA programs: American Coastal paying about $8.4 million for $25.5 million of first-event cover in the middle of hurricane season marks where the bottom of a Florida named-storm tower clears, and every condo and homeowners association program buying that layer this winter prices off it.

Aon Securities put insurance-linked securities capital at $144.5 billion. Aon Securities reported on August 28 that ILS capital reached $144.5 billion as of June 30, 2026, up $3.5 billion from $141 billion at the end of the first quarter, a five-year compound annual growth rate of 8.3%. The catastrophe bond market has compounded at 11.6% over ten years. Richard Pennay, chief executive of Aon Securities, described ILS as evolving into a source of foundational reinsurance capital. (Artemis)

→ For MGA operators and reinsurers/ILS: $144.5 billion of ILS capital at June 30, growing 8.3% a year, is the supply behind placements like American Coastal's $25.5 million Armor Re II notes, so a residential program with defensible modeling has a larger pool to approach ahead of the January 1 renewal than it had a year ago.

Bamboo Insurance filed to take a homeowners managing general underwriter public. Bamboo Insurance Services, Inc. filed a registration statement on August 28 for a proposed initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BMB, describing itself as a technology-enabled, underwriting-first, capital-light managing general underwriter focused on homeowners coverage. Share count and price range have not been set. MGA written premium grew from $66.6 million in 2022 to $696.1 million in 2025, with annual growth slowing from 199% in 2023 to 122% in 2024 and 58% in 2025. Bamboo prices and selects risk in-house while fronting carriers hold the capital, and in July it added $150 million of admitted homeowners and dwelling fire capacity in constrained parts of California through Greenshoots Re, its sidecar, a reinsurance vehicle funded by outside investors, now roughly $175 million backing four fronting carriers. CVC, the private equity firm, acquired the business from White Mountains at a $1.75 billion valuation in a sale completed in December 2025, with White Mountains retaining about 15% on a fully diluted basis. J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are joint lead bookrunning managers. (PR Newswire, Insurance Business, Coverager)

→ For PE-VC investors and MGA operators: Bamboo's S-1 puts a California wildfire book's loss ratios and its reliance on four fronting carriers into public disclosure for the first time, and whatever multiple BMB prices at becomes the comparable every homeowners program owner is measured against.

Hippo will take homeowners from 8 states to 22. Hippo said on August 27 that it will offer homeowners insurance in 14 additional states starting in the fourth quarter of 2026: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The company said the 14-state expansion required about 70% less engineering effort, measured in person-weeks, than its initial eight-state launch. (PR Newswire, Reinsurance News)

→ For state entrants and program administrators: Cutting per-state build cost by about 70% lowers the premium a new state has to produce before a filing pays for itself, and the 14 states Hippo picked leave out Florida, Texas, Louisiana and the Carolinas, the coastal wind states where admitted appetite is still scarce.

Aon will consolidate more than $5.5 billion of US program premium into one platform. Aon announced on August 25 that it will launch Totalis Specialty Group effective January 1, 2027, combining NFP Totalis Program Underwriters with Aon Affinity's US programs business. The platform starts with more than $5.5 billion in US premium volume and 46 specialty programs, and relationships with more than 25,000 active brokers, 100 carriers and reinsurers, and 350 sponsors. Kip Kelley is executive chairman and Tom Gillingham is chief executive. The announcement names no US residential property lines. (Reinsurance News)

→ For program administrators and wholesalers: A broker holding 46 programs and $5.5 billion of premium under Totalis from January 1, 2027 sets the carrier-access terms that independent program administrators have to match.

Texas gave its insurance department until September 14 to answer a 79% run of homeowners increases. Governor Greg Abbott wrote to Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Commissioner Amanda Crawford on August 24, citing a 79% rise in the average annual Texas homeowners premium over six years and directing five actions: factoring a home's FORTIFIED roof status, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety's construction standard, into rate-setting; prohibiting insurers from refusing to write or renew residential property policies based solely on the age of the property or its components, including roof age; issuing a bulletin banning price optimization, setting premiums on what a customer will tolerate rather than on risk, across TDI-regulated products; establishing an insurance fraud task force; and studying inflated claims costs. No rule has been adopted. TDI recommendations are due September 14, 2026. (National Law Review, InsuranceNewsNet)

→ For MGA operators and program administrators in Texas: A TDI prohibition on age-of-roof declinations would break the single underwriting guideline most Texas homeowners and dwelling fire programs are built on, and the recommendations that decide its shape are due September 14.

The California FAIR Plan cut renewal commissions from 8% to 3%. Effective October 15, 2026, the California FAIR Plan, the state's property insurer of last resort, is reducing producer commissions on certain dwelling fire, commercial, commercial high-value, and businessowners policies, taking new business from 10% to 7% and renewals from 8% to 3%. Michael D'Arelli, executive director of the American Agents Alliance, called the change "confounding, deeply unfair, and a real middle finger to California homeowners in fire-prone communities," and warned that independent agencies may stop accepting FAIR Plan business at current levels. The FAIR Plan has posted no public bulletin of its own; the figures are as reported by Insurance Journal on August 26. (Insurance Journal)

→ For wholesalers and California entrants: A 62.5% cut to FAIR Plan renewal compensation on October 15 pays producers to move dwelling fire risk onto private paper, which is the opening for admitted California capacity such as the $150 million Bamboo placed through Greenshoots Re in July.

California lawmakers dropped the proposal to strip insurer subrogation against utilities. Amended text of SB 492 published on August 29 leaves intact insurers' subrogation rights against utilities, their ability to recover wildfire claim payments from the utility that caused the fire, after Governor Gavin Newsom had sought to eliminate them in wildfire litigation. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association estimated that eliminating subrogation would have raised California homeowners premiums by 10% to 20%. The amended bill bars hedge funds from buying insurers' claims against electric companies and adds a faster claim-payment process for survivors. The bill had not completed the legislative process as of August 31, with the session set to end September 1. (Insurance Business, Claims Journal, Office of the Governor)

→ For HNW incumbents and reinsurers/ILS: Keeping subrogation in SB 492 takes the 10% to 20% premium effect APCIA attributed to its removal off the table, so California wildfire models that assume recovery from PG&E and Southern California Edison still hold, while the hedge-fund purchase ban slows how quickly a carrier converts those claims to cash.

Oregon extended its wildfire non-renewal freeze through September 29. Sean O'Day, director of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, signed an order dated August 30 extending the state's July 31 wildfire emergency order by 30 days, through September 29, 2026. The extension continues the enumerated restrictions on cancellations and non-renewals for active policies in the affected areas, along with the premium grace periods and extended claim-reporting deadlines set in the July 31 order. (Oregon DFR order, Insurance Journal)

→ For program administrators and fronting carriers: An Oregon homeowners program holding non-renewal notices in the affected areas is frozen through September 29 under O'Day's August 30 order, and a further 30-day extension is available while the governor's proclamation stands.

Hawaii told insurers a hurricane warning does not set the deductible. Insurance Commissioner Scott K. Saiki issued a memo on August 27 on claims from Tropical Storm Lala, directing insurers to "apply the policy language as written" and stating that "the existence of a Hurricane Watch, Hurricane Warning, or named storm does not, by itself, establish which coverage or deductible applies to a particular loss." Causation is to be assessed on a claim-specific basis, and denials require a factual and contractual explanation. (Insurance Journal)

→ For fronting carriers and program administrators: Saiki's August 27 memo puts any Hawaii dwelling program that applies a named-storm deductible off warning status alone in front of a regulator who has already written down the opposite rule.