Company offering windstorm insurance coverage in S.C.

By Candace Jarrett
Morning News Reporter
Published: July 18, 2008

Certain homeowners in South Carolina have another avenue for getting comprehensive homeowner’s insurance.

Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE) is a specialist insurer dedicated exclusively to serving the owners of high-value homes insured for more than $1 million.

PURE will offer windstorm and hail coverage for large, well-built South Carolina homes that meet the standards of the latest building codes. Hail alone causes $1 billion in damage to crops and property each year, according to the National Weather Service.

PURE also will offer automobile, jewelry and art, personal-excess liability and watercraft coverage.

“The bigger the houses are, the harder it is to knock them down,” Bobby Collins, PURE’s South Carolina operations manager, said. “It’s our goal to reward those with the best built homes based on the most current housing standards.”

PURE’s stipulations for a well-built home state the home must cost at least $1 million to rebuild and be at least 3,000 square feet.

If located in a coastal county, all the external windows and doors must be protected with shutters, the roof must be equivalent to the most current South Carolina building codes and if the home is older than seven years, the walls must be constructed of masonry or concrete.

“PURE’s expansion to South Carolina comes at a crucial time during our state’s insurance crisis,” Collins said. “The limited capacity of our current insurance carriers and the restrictions of the South Carolina Wind & Hail Underwriting Association have led to a challenging environment of high prices, unregulated coverage and limited choices for customers.
The wind pool is ill-equipped to deal with high-value homes as it limits the amount of coverage and the type of coverage available.”

Collins said the new insurance is directed toward coastal homes, but he said the company also offers inland housing insurance. The only stipulation that changes is that the home has to be valued at $500,000 or more.

Mil Servant is a new client with PURE. His Garden City Beach home located in Georgetown County is insured.

Servant said he’s shopping for coverage of his oceanfront Surfside Beach home in Horry County.

“I went to PURE because of the amount of coverage I was able to attain,” he said. “My former wind pool insurance wasn’t cutting it. I was able to get fire and wind coverage on my home, which I wasn’t able to do before. For a higher deductible, in the end, I come out saving more.”

Servant said in the almost two years since he built his primary residence, he has seen premium rates increase dramatically in the area and said he felt PURE was coming to the area at an important time.

“I think there’s a market for the insurance in South Carolina,” he said. “New homes are popping up every day. They are bigger and a little more stable than some of the small older homes.

“I know there are other people out there like me who want to be sure their home, be it the beach house or the permanent home, is protected.”

Shane Robinson, spokesman for Allstate Insurance Co., said another important issue with homeowner’s insurance is flood coverage. He said people don’t realize their comprehensive homeowners insurance doesn’t come with flood protection.

“For a lot of people, their home is the majority of their assets,” he said. “Their future is making sure they are properly insured, and when I say that, I mean wind, hail, fire and flood.

Flood maps have changed in the past few years and people don’t realize that they have to get additional flood insurance from the Federal government’s National Flood Insurance program.”

Robinson said the flooding that has occurred in the Midwest should show people the importance and added that flooding can happen anywhere.

“For a lot of people, their home is their retirement pool,” he said. “In the end, it’s about your personal belongings. These are your things.”