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Comment by Rebelgecko | Hacker News Reader

Considering the trouble that more established insurance companies have with large natural disasters, I would be a bit wary of a startup for something catatostrophic like earthquakes

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I just looked into it. Their max payout appears to be $10,000. That's not a lot. It's not to rebuild your house or anything, it's just to pay for a hotel for a while and maybe some new food.

I always considered earthquake insurance a waste of money. The premiums are high and deductibles are quite high so a quake would have to be very strong to do enough damage that cost of repair was more than the deductible. And if that was the case then there would be widespread damage and a huge amount in claims. Seems unlikely even a big insurance company could remain solvent and pay out.

Insurance companies are insured against big payouts (reinsurance). As long as it’s not the literal apocalypse, they will pay.

LA getting "the big one" would be a hell of a local apocalypse, at least.

In "A Tale of 5 Crashes" the gold requirements from fire insurance in San Francisco in 1906 caused the increasing of rates in England

Agreed. There is no way that a startup is capitalized enough to survive a payout. Their CEO and investors must be sweating bullets over the next few days, worrying if an earthquake hits closer to LA

I'm sure they're just reselling a real insurer's product with some marketing and a web 2.0 website. No way an undercapitalized startup is allowed to actually underwrite their own insurance contracts.

yeah, according to their FAQ:

> Jumpstart is a surplus lines insurance broker working in full compliance with applicable insurance regulations. The insurance described here is effected with certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London.

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