Louisiana Consumers Take a Risk With Surplus Lines Upstart for Home Insurance

For nearly a decade, Denise Hancock always turned to a broker to find competitively priced home insurance. So when her insurer, United Property and Casualty, went under earlier this year, Hancock appealed to her longtime agent.

‘The quotes they came back to me with were both more than double’ the price of her existing policy, she said. Hancock decided to try something new: An upstart company called KIN with a small but growing presence in Louisiana that was able to insure her duplex in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans.

She said signing up was simple: No agent. No inspection. Everything was done online in less than an hour.

But there’s one significant downside to buying a policy from KIN: The company is a ‘surplus lines’ insurer, meaning its rates are not regulated by the state. As a result, KIN’s losses are not backed by Louisiana’s insurance bailout fund if the company ever goes broke.