Solution: Apply engineering and loss prevention expertise to high-value residential properties so that science-led risk reduction translates directly into lower cost of risk.

Key challenge: Admitted carriers have retreated aggressively from high-value personal lines in California, Florida, and Texas — the three states with the highest concentrations of high-net-worth households — pushing affluent residential risk into the surplus market precisely as losses accelerate. Average annual home insurance costs are projected to reach $3,057 by end of 2026, up from $2,948 at year-end 2025, with premiums rising in 45 states. Standard residential underwriting relies on statistical averages rather than property-specific engineering assessment, leaving significant preventable loss unreduced.

Context: FM employs hundreds of engineers rather than actuaries, using property-specific assessments of building materials, fire suppression systems, and mechanical infrastructure to price risk. PURE Insurance is a reciprocal insurer serving high-net-worth families across the US and Canada in peri-urban and suburban settings. High-value residential properties have grown as complex as the industrial facilities FM already insures — routinely including hydraulic car lifts, elaborate HVAC systems, and fine art storage — risks more commonly encountered in industrial underwriting. FM's industrial clients frequently asked why FM engineers their manufacturing sites but not their homes; the PURE partnership directly answers that question.

Solution in practice: In a strategic partnership announced in 2025, PURE Insurance and FM established a long-term collaboration under which FM brings engineering expertise, research capability, and loss prevention advice to PURE's high-net-worth residential members. Initial efforts focus on wildfire-exposed properties: FM assesses plant oil content in landscaping, evaluates window glazing for flood risk, and advises on HVAC design to limit smoke travel — applying techniques already proven in commercial settings. Critically, the partnership includes a risk-sharing reinsurance agreement under which FM takes a stake in PURE's underwriting results, aligning FM's financial interest directly with policyholder loss outcomes and distinguishing the arrangement from a consulting relationship. PURE's CEO confirmed the partnership should allow PURE to responsibly expand its membership and write risks it would currently approach with caution. An independent analyst noted that engineering-based improvements change the quality of risk assessment but are unlikely to produce dramatic premium reductions for properties with very high total value at risk in extreme-hazard zones.

Impact / outcome: Engineering-led loss prevention backed by FM risk-sharing reinsurance; lets PURE expand membership in high-risk areas.

Next steps: The PURE–FM model demonstrates that commercial loss prevention infrastructure — engineering expertise, research capability, and risk-sharing financial structures — can be adapted for high-value residential markets. A coalition could explore how to systematize this cross-sector transfer: establishing shared standards for residential loss prevention assessments, and creating incentive structures such as premium recognition or reinsurance risk-sharing that reward verified resilience investment by homeowners.

Organizations involved:

Authoring: PURE Insurance

Actors: FM Implementation partners Insurers