New Insurer’s Chairman Comes From Company That Newspaper Investigated

Aug. 19--It can feel like draping your property with an enormous slice of Swiss cheese to buy insurance coverage for storms these days. Case in point: Super Storm Sandy, which caused an estimated $70 billion in economic loss -- but less than $30 billion was covered by insurance.

One South Florida company is offering to help plug such coverage holes, but a key executive comes from an insurer The Palm Beach Post wrote about for denying claims in a way a state consumer advocate found "reprehensible."

New Paradigm Underwriters in Fort Lauderdale says it is offering supplementary coverage for storms to cover what traditional policies increasingly don't. That can mean hurricane deductibles, business interruption and lost profits, and exclusions like landscaping and outdoor structures.

It aims at, among other clients, condos, golf courses, resorts, hospitals and schools.

"There's a tremendous disconnect between the true economic needs of recovery for property owners, public entities and businesses versus the protection typically provided to them under traditional insurance policies," said Evan Glassman, President and CEO of New Paradigm Underwriters, in a statement. His company is now available to help provide "a more complete solution," he said.

New Paradigm's statement notes chairman Bradley Meier previously founded Universal Insurance Holdings. Its subsidiary Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co. became the state's largest private home insurer by policy count, with Palm Beach County as its largest market. He left in 2013.

Meier did not respond to requests for comment through a publicist.

Starting in 2012, The Post wrote extensively about Universal's denials of devastating home fire and water claims for reasons consumers considered "gotcha" tactics: omissions in applications such as tax liens in another state, or co-signing an aging relative's loan.

Homeowners from Delray Beach to Gainesville said when they filed a big claim, the company canceled their policies, putting homes and life savings in jeopardy.

The company eventually agreed to a $1.3 million state fine, a review of more than 260 denied claims and a pledge to vet applications within 90 days -- not waiting until a major claim sometimes years later.

It goes to an issue of trust critical with insurance companies, said Gainesville homeowner Melody Ward: "You can't let people think they have insurance and then when they need it, oops, they don't have it."

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