For many reasons, catastrophe insurance is very expensive. Aside from being bad for the property owner, this is a horrible outcome for communities as society as one of the easiest quantifiable benefits of a robust insurance market, is that the market mechanism helps communities bounce back from natural catastrophes. Enter Kate Stillwell and Jumpstart.

Jumpstart looks to provide first-dollar catastrophe and extra expense (think no property damage, but perhaps your local school is closed and you need to hire help for your children). Jumpstart has started with earthquake coverage in California (where only about 12% of homeowners have coverage). Cleverly using parametric triggers (requires only lots of ground-shaking and not property damage to pay out), Jumpstart can provide a financial jumpstart to policyholders in about 48 hours. Necessary cash during potentially chaotic times.

We discussed this and a very unique distribution mechanism of adding Jumpstart coverage to corporate benefits packages.