AMERICAN COASTAL INSURANCE Corp

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☑ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024

OR

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period _____ to _____

Commission File Number 001-35761

American Coastal Insurance Corporation

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

727-633-0851

(Telephone number, including area code)

800 2nd Avenue S. St. Petersburg, Florida 33701

(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes☐ No R

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes☐ No R

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes R No£

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes R No£

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.£

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes☐ No R

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).£

The aggregate market value of shares of the registrant’s common stock held by non–affiliates of the registrant was approximately $253,270,000 as of June 30, 2024, calculated using the closing sales price reported for such date on the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (Nasdaq). For purposes of this disclosure, shares of common stock held by persons who hold more than 10% of the outstanding shares of common stock and shares held by executive officers and directors of the registrant have been excluded because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

As of March 3, 2025,48,248,630 shares of the registrant’s common stock were outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Part III of this Form 10-K incorporates by reference certain information from the Proxy Statement for the 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.

Throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K (Form 10-K), we present amounts in all tables in thousands, except for share amounts, per share amounts, policy and claim counts or where more specific language or context indicates a different presentation. In the narrative sections of this Form 10-K, we show full values rounded to the nearest thousand.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this Form 10-K or in documents incorporated by reference contain or may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements about anticipated growth in revenues, gross written premium, earnings per share, estimated unpaid losses on insurance policies, investment returns, and diversification and expectations about our liquidity, our ability to meet our investment objectives and our ability to manage and mitigate market risk with respect to our investments. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “endeavor,” “project,” “believe,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “estimate,” or “continue” or the negative variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the industry and market in which we operate, and management’s beliefs and assumptions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. The risks and uncertainties include, without limitation:

•our exposure to catastrophic events and severe weather conditions;

•the regulatory, economic and weather conditions present in Florida and New York, the states in which we are most concentrated;

•our ability to cultivate and maintain agent relationships, particularly our relationship with AmRisc, LLC (AmRisc);

•the possibility that actual claims incurred may exceed our loss reserves for claims;

•assessments charged by various governmental agencies;

•our ability to implement and maintain adequate internal controls over financial reporting;

•our ability to maintain information technology and data security systems, and to outsource relationships;

•our reliance on key vendor relationships, and the ability of our vendors to protect the personally identifiable information of our customers, claimants or employees;

•our ability to attract and retain the services of senior management;

•risks and uncertainties relating to our acquisitions, mergers, dispositions and other strategic transactions;

•risks associated with investments in which we share ownership or management with third parties;

•our ability to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness and comply with covenants and other requirements related to our indebtedness;

•our ability to maintain our market share;

•changes in the regulatory environment present in the states in which we operate;

•the impact of new federal or state regulations that affect the insurance industry;

•the cost, viability and availability of reinsurance;

•our ability to pay claims accurately and timely;

•our ability to collect from our reinsurers on our reinsurance claims;

•dependence on investment income and the composition of our investment portfolio and related market risks;

•our ability to accurately price the risks we underwrite and the effectiveness of our loss limitation methods;

•the possibility of the pricing and terms for our products to decline due to the historically cyclical nature of the property and casualty insurance and reinsurance industry;

•the outcome of litigation pending against us, including the terms of any settlements;

•downgrades in our financial strength or stability ratings;

•the impact of future transactions of substantial amounts of our common stock by us or our significant stockholders on our stock price;

•our ability to meet the standards for continued listing on Nasdaq;

•our ability to pay dividends in the future, which may be constrained by our holding company structure;

•the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends in the future, which may affect our liquidity and our ability to meet our

obligations;

•the ability of R. Daniel Peed and his affiliates to exert significant control over us due to substantial ownership of our common stock, subject to certain restrictive covenants that may restrict our ability to pursue certain opportunities;

•the impact of transactions by R. Daniel Peed and his affiliates on the price of our common stock;

•provisions in our charter documents that may make it harder for others to obtain control of us; and

•other risks and uncertainties described in this report, including under “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A.

We caution you to not place reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are valid only as of the date they were made. Except as may be required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, the occurrence of unanticipated events or otherwise.

Part I

INTRODUCTION

Company Overview

American Coastal Insurance Corporation (referred to in this Form 10-K as we, our, us, the Company or ACIC) is a holding company primarily engaged in the commercial property and casualty insurance business with investments in the United States. On July 10, 2023, we changed our corporate name from United Insurance Holdings Corp. to American Coastal Insurance Corporation. We conduct our business principally through our two wholly owned insurance subsidiaries: American Coastal Insurance Company (AmCoastal); and Interboro Insurance Company (IIC). Collectively, we refer to the holding company and all our subsidiaries, including non-insurance subsidiaries, as “American Coastal Insurance Corporation,” which is the preferred brand identification for our Company.

Our Company’s primary source of revenue is generated from writing insurance in Florida. Our target market in such areas consists of states where the perceived threat of natural catastrophe has caused large national insurance carriers to reduce their concentration of policies. We believe an opportunity exists for ACIC to write profitable business in such areas. During 2022, we also wrote commercial residential insurance in South Carolina and Texas, however, effective May 1, 2022, we no longer write in these states. In addition, during 2022 we wrote personal residential business in six other states, however on February 27, 2023, our former insurance subsidiary, United Property & Casualty Insurance Company (UPC) was placed into receivership with the Florida Department of Financial Services (the "DFS"), which divested our ownership of UPC. The events leading to receivership and results of this subsidiary for periods prior to receivership, now included within discontinued operations, can be seen in Note 4 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements below.

We have historically grown our business through strong organic growth, complemented by strategic acquisitions and partnerships, including our acquisitions of AmCo Holding Company, LLC (AmCo) and its subsidiaries, including AmCoastal, in April 2017, and IIC in April 2016, and our strategic partnership with a subsidiary of Tokio Marine Kiln Group Limited (Tokio Marine), which formed Journey Insurance Company (JIC) in August 2018. Effective June 1, 2022, we merged JIC into AmCoastal, with AmCoastal being the surviving entity.

On May 9, 2024, the Company entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement (the "Sale Agreement") with Forza Insurance Holdings, LLC ("Forza") in which ACIC will sell and Forza will acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding stock of IIC. The aggregate purchase price for the shares will be equal to IIC's GAAP shareholder’s equity on the closing date. Closing is subject to customary closing conditions, including New York Department of Financial Services ("NYDFS") approval of Forza's application for acquisition of control, and NYDFS approval of a new rate and form filing. On February 13, 2025, Forza’s application to acquire IIC was approved by the NYDFS. The Company and Forza have agreed to close on April 1, 2025. Given IIC is our last remaining personal lines entity and represents the final step in our strategic shift to becoming a specialty commercial underwriter, IIC results of operations and assets and liabilities are captured within discontinued operations and can be seen in Note 4 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements below.

Financial strength or stability ratings are important to insurance companies in establishing their competitive position and may impact an insurance company’s ability to write policies. We are rated by Demotech and Kroll Bond Rating Agency (Kroll). Demotech maintains a letter-scale financial stability rating system ranging from A’’ (A double prime) to L (licensed by insurance regulatory authorities). Kroll maintains a letter-scale financial strength rating system for insurance companies ranging from AAA (extremely strong operations and no risk) to R (operating under regulatory supervision). The financial strength or stability ratings of our insurance company subsidiaries as of December 31, 2024 are listed below. With these ratings, we expect our property insurance policies will be acceptable to the secondary mortgage marketplace and mortgage lenders.

Our Strategy

Our vision is to be a top-quartile underwriter of catastrophe-exposed property insurance. Our plan is to focus primarily on low-rise commercial property insurance in Florida, through our exclusive managing general agency agreement and long-term partnership with AmRisc. The Company’s continuous portfolio optimization process strives to balance our risk appetite and underwriting profit opportunities with our available capital and reinsurance capacity to achieve consistent and sustainable underwriting profitability for the Company and its reinsurers over time.

We desire to have the right combination of price, underwriting rules, deductibles and coverages to earn a return on capital that exceeds our cost of capital throughout the insurance market cycle. The Company also seeks to have risks maintain an appropriate insurance to value through annual re-underwriting and inspection of each property to ensure it meets or exceeds our underwriting guidelines with verified data quality and integrity regarding the key risk characteristics of our covered properties.

With UPC in receivership, the Company’s personal lines business is limited to IIC in New York and activities supporting the run-off and liquidation of UPC. As a result of the definitive agreements to sell IIC and our desire to focus on commercial lines, we expect AmCoastal to be our only operating insurance subsidiary following the sale of IIC.

PRODUCTS AND DISTRIBUTION

In July 2020, we implemented a strategy to de-risk the Company by reducing premiums and exposure from our personal lines portfolio that was offset with growth in our commercial lines portfolio. Upon closing of the sale of IIC, we will have completed our exit of the personal lines market. The graphs below show our product mix distribution based on gross written premium, including our premiums attributable to IIC, but excluding UPC, which is no longer a subsidiary of the Company.

Personal Residential Products

Policies we issue under our homeowners’ program provide structure, content and liability coverage for standard single-family homeowners, renters and condominium unit owners through our subsidiary, IIC. Personal residential products are offered in New York. We include coverage to policyholders for loss or damage to dwellings, detached structures or equipment caused by covered causes of loss such as fire, wind, hail, water, theft and vandalism.

In 2024, personal residential property policies (by which we mean both standard homeowners’, dwelling fire, renters’ and condo owners’ policies) produced written premium of $39,704,000 and accounted for 5.8% of our total gross written premium.

Loss and loss adjustment expenses related to our personal residential products tend to be higher during periods of severe or inclement weather.

Commercial Residential Products

We provide commercial multi-peril property insurance for residential condominium associations and apartments in Florida. In 2020, we began writing commercial policies in Texas and South Carolina. Effective May 31, 2022, we no longer write commercial policies in Texas and South Carolina. We include coverage to policyholders for loss or damage to buildings, inventory or equipment caused by covered causes of loss such as fire, wind, hail, water, theft and vandalism.

In 2024, commercial policies produced written premium of $647,805,000 and accounted for 94.2% of our total gross written premium.

Not-At-Risk Offerings

On our equipment breakdown, identity theft and cybersecurity policies we earn a commission while retaining no risk of loss, since all such risk is ceded to other private companies (other risks). Previously, we offered flood policies that were ceded to the federal government via the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). However, on June 9, 2022, we entered into a renewal rights agreement with Wright National Flood Insurance Company to sell our entire NFIP Write Your Own flood insurance business and are no longer offering flood policies.

Underwriting

We price our products at levels that we project will generate an acceptable underwriting profit. We aim to accurately underwrite the risk and profitability of each potential policy. The Company uses pricing algorithms, judgement-based rating and consent to rate methodologies that consider historical attritional loss costs for the rating territory in which the risk resides, as well as modeled expected losses for catastrophes and projected reinsurance costs based on the specific geographic and structural characteristics of the property. We seek to optimize our portfolio by managing our probable maximum loss (PML), total insured value (TIV) and average annual loss. As part of this optimization process, we use the output from third-party modeling software to analyze our risk exposures, including wind exposures, by zip code or street address.

We measure our underwriting profitability by the combined ratio, which is a sum of the ratios of losses, loss adjustment expenses, and underwriting expenses to either gross or net earned premiums. A combined ratio under 100% indicates an underwriting profit. Refer to Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Part II, Item 7 of this report for further details on our combined ratio.

Distribution Channels

Our commercial lines policies are marketed and distributed to condominium associations by AmRisc through a network of independent agencies managed by AmRisc that specialize in commercial residential insurance. AmRisc is an unaffiliated third party and represents 100% of our commercial lines revenue based on our exclusive agreement in Florida.

As of December 31, 2024, we marketed and distributed our personal lines policies to consumers through approximately 400 independent agencies.

The Company has focused on the independent agency distribution channel since its inception, and we believe independent agents and agencies build relationships in their communities that can lead to profitable business and policyholder satisfaction. We believe we have built significant credibility and loyalty with the independent agent communities in the states in which we operate through (i) our extensive training for full-service insurance agencies that distribute our products and (ii) periodic business reviews using established benchmarks and goals for premium volume and profitability.

Typically, a full-service agency is small to medium in size and represents several insurance companies for both personal and commercial product lines. We depend on our independent agents to produce new business for us. We compensate our independent agents primarily with fixed-rate commissions that we believe are consistent with those generally prevailing in the market.

GEOGRAPHIC MARKETS

The table below shows the geographic distribution of our policies in-force as of December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, including our policies in-force attributable to IIC, but excluding UPC, which is no longer a subsidiary of the Company. The graphs below exclude states with policies that are less than 0.2% of our total policies in-force.

(1)We are no longer writing in Texas as of May 31, 2022.

The table below shows the geographic distribution of our TIV of all polices in-force as of December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, including TIV attributable to IIC, but excluding UPC, which is no longer a subsidiary of the Company.

(1)We are no longer writing in Texas as of May 31, 2022.

COMPETITION

The property and casualty insurance market in the United States is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Our primary competitors range from large national property and casualty insurance companies that write most classes of business using traditional products and pricing to small and mid-size regional insurance companies that provide specialty coverages.

We compete primarily on the basis of policy features, the strength of our distribution network and the quality of our services to our agents and policyholders. This pricing segmentation approach allows us to offer products in areas that have a high demand for property insurance yet are under-served by the national carriers. However, we face the risk that policyholders may be able to obtain more favorable terms from competitors rather than renewing coverage with us.

Our ability to compete is dependent on a number of factors. One factor is the financial strength or stability ratings assigned to our insurance subsidiaries by independent rating agencies. A downgrade in these ratings could negatively impact our position in the market. Another factor is that we must attract and retain key employees and highly skilled people in order to be successful in the market. There is intense competition in our industry which could lead to higher-than-expected employee turnover or difficulty attracting new employees. Finally, technological advancements and innovation in the insurance industry provide opportunities for a competitive advantage. Advancements and innovation are being used in all aspects of the industry including digital-based distribution methods, underwriting and claims handling. We continue to leverage the technology that we have and have made substantial investments into new technology in an effort to gain an advantage over our competitors.

REGULATION

We are subject to extensive regulation in the jurisdictions in which our insurance company subsidiaries are domiciled and licensed to transact business, primarily at the state level. AmCoastal is domiciled in Florida and IIC is domiciled in New York. In general, these regulations are designed to protect the interests of insurance policyholders.

Such regulations have a substantial effect on certain areas of our business, including:

•insurer solvency,

•reserve adequacy,

•insurance company licensing and examination,

•agent and adjuster licensing,

•rate setting, underwriting rules and coverage forms,

•investments,

•assessments or other surcharges for guaranty funds,

•transactions with affiliates,

•the payment of dividends,

•reinsurance,

•protection of personally identifiable information,

•risk solvency assessment and enterprise risk management,