Insurance focused holding company HCI Group, Inc. is looking to establish a new Florida domestic homeowners insurer, named Tailrow Insurance Company, Reinsurance News has learned.

HCI Group already owns Florida licensed insurer Homeowners Choice, insurtech property and flood insurance specialist TypTap, and reinsurance focused unit Claddaugh.

Tailrow Insurance Company is expected to be licensed as an authorised domestic insurer for writing the homeowners multi-peril line of insurance business in the state of Florida.

An application has been submitted to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, on which the regulator said it has satisfactorily met all conditions related to granting it a permit to form the domestic insurance entity.

HCI Group will be the sole shareholder of Tailrow Insurance Company, we understand, with the new company set to help HCI expand its Florida focused multiperil homeowners book.

Prior to writing any business the new Florida domestic insurance company will need to have its first reinsurance program placed.

Paresh Patel, the CEO of HCI Group will be President of the new insurer, but no further details are available on a management team for Tailrow Insurance at this time.

With rates for property insurance in Florida still high and rising in many cases, while the enactment of legislative reforms are expected to result in a much-improved operating environment, establishing new insurers in Florida has suddenly become an attractive option again.

HCI’s new carrier Tailrow Insurance could be the first new homeowners insurance start-up in Florida this year, but it may not be the last, as Florida’s insurance market begins to look more attractive to capital again.

HCI Group’s CEO Patel has previously said last year that the company saw an opportunity to expand into the Florida market on its own terms, our sister publication Artemis had reported at the time.