Is this the future of home insurance in disaster-prone areas: The carrier coordinates the home-hardening work, from connecting homeowners with contractors to installing sensors, and maybe even finances the cost of the mitigation?
“That’s our belief and that’s why we started the company,” said Dan Preston, CEO of the startup known as Stand Insurance Exchange.
The reciprocal launched last week in the Florida market with a tweak to the standard business model and a nod to the growing recognition that more storm-resistant homes may be the best way to limit claims and premiums.
Preston, the former head of tech-heavy Metromile auto insurance company, said that, historically, insurers have had just two main tools at their disposal to manage risky areas: Exit the market altogether, or raise premiums. He believes there’s a third method—working closely with property owners to mitigate the risk and reduce claims and premiums.
“Ultimately, what we’re finding is that in most cases for homeowners, the combined cost of mitigation, with the resulting lower premium, is less than what they’re paying now,” Preston told Insurance Journal.
Stand, one of at least 20 new insurers in the Florida market since historic 2022 legislative reforms, was granted a certificate of authority by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation in September 2025. That was followed by approval of a takeout offer of 25,000 policies taken from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state’s insurer of last resort. So far, only about 1,000 takeouts have been made, but Preston said that’s enough to get started.
OIR has approved six rate or form filings from Stand in the last year, mostly marked “trade secrets.” If the company does offer mitigation financing later, it will be done through finance companies that already have regulatory approval, a company spokesperson said.
For now, the focus is connecting homeowners with mitigation firms. The reciprocal has negotiated discounted rates with Florida contractors to install roof-to-wall connections that are designed to prevent roof rafters from being lifted from the house during high winds. Stand also plans to gift water-leak detectors to qualified homeowners.
Stand, with offices in San Francisco and Tampa, has operated in the California market for almost three years, where its mitigation model has been validated in wildfire-prone communities, a company statement explained.
Wind mitigation in Florida is not new, but it has gained steam in recent years. The ever-popular My Safe Florida Home program is the best-funded state mitigation plan in the country, providing matching grants of up to $10,000 per home. But the wait list is long, and it can take months for the inspection and approval process, according to news reports.
Leak sensors have been around for years, but have not been widely adopted by homeowners.
But few, if any, Florida insurers have offered to finance the retrofit costs. Preston said the financing plan will come later and will be covered through a separate bill to homeowners. It won’t be tacked on to the premium, he noted.
The mitigation plan is the latest innovation to come out of the crucible that is the Florida market: People’s Trust Insurance, in Deerfield Beach, Florida, and a few others continue to utilize managed repair programs, with policies that ask homeowners to use the insurer’s designated restoration contractors.
