Flood of Risks

So what drives an engineer, a real estate mogul, a securities lawyer and an insurance agent to start an insurance company?

It all started with breakfast at Bob Evans in Largo in late 2006. In fact a lot has started at the Bob Evans, a place the men refer to as “corporate headquarters.”

The four men were fed up with property insurance hikes following the storms in Florida in 2004 and 2005 and wanted to create an alternative to Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer of supposed last resort. Despite being told a number of times that doing so was a stupid decision, they pulled together $2 million of their own money and fundraised an additional $13 million from 76 investors to start Homeowners Choice.