The Kingstone Insurance Company (“KICO”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kingstone Companies, Inc., a property and casualty insurance holding company, has decided that it will no longer underwrite commercial liability risks. This includes business owners, artisans (“CraftPak”), special multi-peril, and commercial umbrella policies.

Barry Goldstein, the company's chief executive officer, said in a statement, “Following our Q1 reserve strengthening for commercial lines, we placed a moratorium on new business, seeking to cap our exposure to these types of risks. While they accounted for about 12 percent our total earned premiums, the associated reserves were 40 percent of the company's total. After a two month review, I concluded yesterday that it would be in the company's and shareholders' best interest to exit these lines of business, and do so as soon as possible. We informed the [New York State Department of Financial Services] on July 22 of our decision, and our producers were advised today. We will continue to underwrite our physical damage only product.

“These commercial liability lines are the most volatile and carry the longest claim development 'tail' of any of Kingstone's offerings. They accounted for most of the adverse loss development we experienced in Q1, and our conclusion was that based on a required capital allocation, we could not deliver acceptable returns for our shareholders. We are actively exploring various alternative reinsurance arrangements to either wall off or eliminate the associated liabilities from our balance sheet. We will have a decision on any alternate handling of these liabilities by September 30. While all inforce policies for these lines will be non-renewed at the end of their current annual terms, it is estimated that a complete exit will take at least 15 months.”