PURE

What they are known for

PURE is not a stock insurance company. It is a reciprocal exchange, which means the policyholders are the members and they carry each other's risk. PURE defines the structure in its own glossary as "an unincorporated association in which members exchange contracts and pay premiums through an attorney-in-fact for the insurance of each other."

That structure is the reason people either like PURE a lot or find it confusing. The upside is that when the book performs, some of the surplus is credited back to members rather than paid out to shareholders. The complication is that membership comes with paperwork, a capital contribution in the early years, and a set of caveats that are easy to miss in a sales conversation.

The other thing PURE is known for is loss prevention. It publishes a risk management consultation, a severe weather monitoring service it calls the PURE Situation Room, and a dedicated art services team. For a household with a real collection or a home in a wildfire area, those services are part of what is actually being bought.

Reciprocal exchangeMember ownedHigh value homeBroker placed onlyTokio Marine group

What they actually issue, and who underwrites it

There are three PURE entities and they are not interchangeable. This matters more here than on most carrier pages, because which one writes your policy changes what you get.

PURE, the admitted carrier. Legally Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, a Florida domiciled reciprocal insurer. This is the one that carries membership and a Subscriber Savings Account.
PURE Specialty Exchange, the surplus lines carrier. Legally PURE Specialty Reciprocal Exchange, an Arizona domiciled domestic surplus lines reciprocal, introduced in March 2022. PURE describes it as being for "responsible high net worth families with homes that do not meet the admitted market's preferred appetite." It has its own separate attorney-in-fact.
PURE Programs, the underwriting manager. A managing general underwriter, not a carrier, introduced in January 2017. It arranges the non-admitted business: coastal homes, wildfire exposed homes, homes rented to others, homes under construction, non-standard homeowners, non-standard and high-profile excess liability, and flood.

Here is the sentence that most PURE write-ups leave out. PURE Programs states in its own footer that "policies arranged by PURE Programs may not confer the benefits of being a reciprocal exchange member including Subscriber or Member Savings Accounts." If the membership economics are the reason you are considering PURE, ask which entity is issuing your policy before you assume you are getting them.

Surplus lines paper is also not backed by a state guaranty fund, and it is not subject to the same form and rate filing rules as an admitted policy. That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to know which one you have.

The attorney-in-fact is PURE Risk Management, LLC, which PURE describes as "a for-profit entity" that "serves as PURE's attorney-in-fact for a fee." It is a subsidiary of Privilege Underwriters, Inc., which PURE describes as a member of the Tokio Marine Group of Companies. Tokio Marine completed the acquisition in February 2020.

The membership model, and what a Subscriber Savings Account really is

The Subscriber Savings Account is PURE's headline feature and the most commonly overstated one. PURE defines it as "a notional account held for each active PURE member, reflecting their individual share of PURE's policyholder surplus." Notional is doing real work in that sentence. Read PURE's own conditions before treating it as savings:

Allocations are not guaranteed. PURE states they "are made at the discretion of management, based on the performance of the business and require regulatory approval," specifically approval by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
The balance can go down. PURE states that the accounts "remain on PURE's balance sheet, available to pay claims if necessary. Because of this, SSA balances could decrease."
The money is not available on demand, and the balance does not earn interest.
It has not happened every year. PURE states it "has made an allocation in 11 of our past 20 years in business."
There is a cost of entry. PURE states that members "are required to contribute surplus (capital), in addition to paying premiums, for their first five years of membership." That contribution is separate from the savings account and separate from premium.

None of that makes the model bad. A reciprocal genuinely does return surplus to members in a way a stock company does not. It does mean the honest way to weigh PURE is on coverage, service and price first, and to treat any savings account credit as an upside that may or may not arrive.

Coverage at a glance

PURE publishes these lines: high value home, jewelry, art and collections, automobile, personal excess liability, fraud and cyber, watercraft, flood, condo and co-op, and home systems protection.

High value home is the anchor product and the reason most households look at PURE.
Automobile is published as covering "everyday vehicles, one-of-a-kind collector cars and everything in between," so the collector car and the daily driver can sit in one place. See collector car insurance.
Jewelry, art and collections is a named product rather than an endorsement afterthought. See valuables and jewelry.
Personal excess liability sits over the household. PURE publishes a savings claim on limits above $10 million, which is its own marketing claim and carries its own footnote. See personal umbrella.
Fraud and cyber is published as "fraud protection, whether online or off," not as a standalone personal cyber policy. Read the product page before treating it as one.
Flood is written by PURE rather than left to the NFIP alone, which matters on a high value home where the NFIP limit stops well short of the rebuild cost.

Who PURE says it is for

PURE publishes its own threshold, and the exact wording is worth reading carefully: "PURE is designed exclusively for homes insured for $1 million or more."

Insured for, not valued at. That is an insured value, meaning the cost to rebuild the house, not the price it would sell for. In much of Oregon and Washington those two numbers are a long way apart in both directions. A 1920s house on a valuable lot can sell for well over a million and insure for less. A custom build on cheap land can be the other way round. If you are trying to work out whether you are in PURE's range, the number that matters is the reconstruction estimate, not the listing.

PURE Specialty Exchange sits behind that for harder risks. PURE describes its high value homeowners product as "designed for homes in coastal and wildfire exposed areas, as well as short-term rentals and other challenging risk profiles, requiring up to $50M in coverage that do not qualify for coverage with an admitted insurer."

Good to know before you choose

PURE does not sell direct. It places through appointed independent brokers, and its own site runs a "find a broker" path for consumers and a separate appointment application for brokers. You cannot buy it from PURE without a broker in the middle.
The financial strength rating is A (Excellent), affirmed by AM Best on July 29, 2026 with a stable outlook, covering both PURE and PURE Specialty Exchange. Worth reading past the letter: in the same release AM Best assesses the balance sheet as strong but calls operating performance marginal, and names the capital structure, which includes surplus notes from the parent, and reliance on reinsurance as offsetting factors. PURE's own website describes the rating as reflecting "good operating performance," which is not the word AM Best used. We are quoting AM Best.
PURE non-renews. It says so itself: "when necessary, we have made the tough call to non-renew policies that no longer fit our criteria." A member owned structure is not a promise of permanent renewal.
State availability is not something PURE publishes, and we are not going to guess at it. What PURE does publish is that its Wildfire Mitigation Program is available to members in a list of states that includes Oregon, Washington and Idaho. That indicates members in those states. It is not a statement about current appetite for a particular house, which is decided in underwriting.
Loss prevention is opt-in and conditional. PURE's own footnote says loss prevention programs "are available to select members in select states."

Explore related coverage

Service and claims

This page is about market access, not policy service. If you already have a PURE policy, PURE handles claims, billing and roadside on one number, 888-813-7873, and members can report a claim, pay a bill and get auto ID cards in the member portal or the mobile app. Member services runs Monday to Friday 7am to 9pm Eastern and Saturday 8am to 8pm Eastern.

For a coverage change, a limit review or a question about whether the policy still fits the house, contact us rather than the carrier. That is the part we do.

Visit the official PURE website →