The acquisition actually occurred earlier this year and was officially announced in June
Hippo, an online insurance platform “transforming home insurance and ownership” has acquired the Spinnaker Insurance Company, a national Property & Casualty insurer licensed in all 50 states and rated A- by A.M. Best. As part of the terms of the transaction Spinnaker, which has been partnering with Hippo since 2017 will join the insurtech’s family of companies.
“Bringing Spinnaker into the Hippo family is a natural next step in growing our proactive home insurance offering,” said Rick McCathron, Chief Insurance Officer at Hippo. “Spinnaker knows the complexities of our industry, mirrors our same standards for technology innovation and customer experience and has continued to meet, oftentimes exceeding, our expectations over the years. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made as partners and look forward to closing the acquisition.”
“Spinnaker is excited to join the Hippo family. Since launching in 2015, Spinnaker has pioneered the concept of value-added fronting: working to create products that benefit the policyholder, the producer, the insurer, and the reinsurer,” said Spinnaker Chief Executive Officer Dave Ingrey. “We know Hippo shares these ideals and we appreciate their relentless pursuit of innovative ways to grow their value proposition for all their customers. Spinnaker is very excited that as a result of this transaction, we can continue to transform the customer experience in ways that will help both companies, as well as all our current and future business partners.”
According to the terms of the transaction, ‘Hippo Insurance will continue to operate as a managing general agent with a portion of its premiums to be underwritten by its affiliate Spinnaker and the balance underwritten by other carrier partners. Spinnaker will operate independently under the Hippo umbrella and maintain its position as a best-in-class program and fronting company. Spinnaker will continue to service a diverse portfolio of top-quality program administrators and drive the growth of its value-added program platform.’
Spinnaker’s New England connections
The acquisition of Spinnaker may be of interest to insurance professionals in New England for a couple of reasons. Our readers may remember, in 2017, long-time Massachusetts insurance professional, John Kittel, was tapped by Spinnaker Insurance to be its exclusive New England distributor as outlined in our July 10, 2017 article entitled, “Well-Known Massachusetts Insurance Executive Brings New Coastal Home Insurance Company To Rhode Island.”
Spinnaker is also the insurance company that is associated with Monomoy, the homeowner’s product created through RogersGray’s MGA, The Monomoy Insurance Group. To learn more about that product, please refer to Agency Checklists’s June 12, 2018 article entitled, “Meet Monomoy: Rogers & Gray’s New Company Offering Homeowners A- Rated Coverage At FAIR Plan Rates.”
