Clear Blue Insurance Group homeowners insurance

Overview

Clear Blue Insurance Group is a fronting carrier: an insurance company that lends its licenses and financial strength rating to managing general agents (MGAs) and passes most of the risk on to reinsurers. You cannot buy a policy from Clear Blue directly, and it does not market to homeowners. Its homeowners business comes almost entirely from Openly, the premium homeowners MGA sold through independent agents, whose policies are issued by Clear Blue's Rock Ridge Insurance Company. If your declarations page says "Rock Ridge Insurance Company" and your agent sold you an Openly policy, Clear Blue is the group legally standing behind it.

The Clear Blue Financial Group ranked #69 among U.S. homeowners insurance groups by 2025 direct premiums written, with $306.1 million (0.16% of the national market), according to NAIC market share data. Homeowners is only one slice of the group. Clear Blue says it writes about $2.2 billion of gross premium across 45 programs with 30 MGA partners and more than 150 reinsurers, in lines such as car dealers, trucking, contractors, commercial packages and habitational risks.

The group is privately held by Clear Blue Financial Holdings, LLC, backed by the private equity firm Pine Brook, and has offices in Charlotte, Dallas and Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

History

Clear Blue opened for business in December 2015 as a Puerto Rico-based commercial fronting operation with two licensed carriers bought as shells that November: RLI Indemnity Co., purchased from Mt. Hawley Insurance Co. for $7.5 million and renamed Clear Blue Insurance Company (the admitted company), and Maiden Specialty Insurance Co., bought from Maiden Holdings and renamed Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company (the surplus lines company). Pine Brook backed the launch, and Jerome Breslin, who had built Bank of America's commercial insurance division and later worked at AmTrust, became president and chief executive officer; he still holds the job.

The group later added Rock Ridge Insurance Company (NAIC #11089) and Highlander Specialty Insurance Company. Clear Blue now says all four companies are domiciled in Texas and write nationwide, and Openly lists Rock Ridge's home office in Dallas.

The defining event of recent years was the Vesttoo affair. In July 2023 AM Best placed Clear Blue's ratings under review with negative implications because it was unclear whether the group could rely on letters of credit backing reinsurance placed with reinsurers tied to Vesttoo, an Israeli reinsurance intermediary facing fraud allegations. Clear Blue moved its active programs to new or existing reinsurers with full collateral and raised capital, including $10 million of new equity from Pine Brook, and in November 2023 AM Best affirmed its A- rating with a stable outlook.

Homeowners coverage

The homeowners policies Clear Blue issues are Openly's products, designed and administered by Openly LLC and underwritten by Rock Ridge. Openly's legal disclosures say the insurer is solely responsible for paying claims on its policies, while Openly handles sales, service and claims administration. That split is normal for an MGA program and is what a policyholder should understand: your contract is with Rock Ridge, but the people you call work for Openly.

Openly sells three policy types:

• Primary residence: guaranteed replacement cost on the dwelling up to $5 million (in Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin the amount is subject to Coverage A and policy conditions), liability up to $1 million, and blanket personal property up to $100,000 at replacement cost with a zero-deductible option.
• Secondary and seasonal homes, with blanket personal property coverage up to $100,000.
• Rented-to-others dwellings, covering loss of rental income, the landlord's property on the premises and liability.

Optional add-ons include water backup and equipment breakdown coverage. In Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, new policies are capped at $6 million of total insured value. For the product itself, see the Openly profile.

Where it sells and recent market moves

Clear Blue's companies are licensed to write program business nationally, with surplus lines paper available in every U.S. jurisdiction. Through Openly, Rock Ridge writes homeowners insurance in 24 states: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Rock Ridge has become Openly's main carrier. Of Openly's roughly $360 million of 2024 written premium, Rock Ridge reported $350.7 million and MS Transverse the rest, according to Coverager's review of statutory data; Openly's current legal disclosures list Rock Ridge as its only underwriting carrier. That concentration cuts both ways: Openly's growth is Clear Blue's homeowners growth, and a change of carrier partner would move most of this premium elsewhere.

Claims

Claims on Rock Ridge-issued Openly policies go to Openly: online through its claims portal or by phone at 888-808-4842 (option 2), Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern. Openly says most policyholders are contacted within a day of filing and offers a managed repair program with pre-vetted contractors. Rock Ridge reported $299 million of paid homeowners losses in 2024, according to Coverager.

Ratings and reputation

AM Best rates the Clear Blue companies, including Rock Ridge, A- (Excellent) with a long-term issuer credit rating of "a-"; its most recent published action, in November 2023, affirmed those ratings with a stable outlook after the Vesttoo review, citing very strong balance sheet strength, adequate operating performance and a limited business profile. Clear Blue's site still showed A- (Excellent), financial size category IX, in 2026; that is well above the AM Best B that Fannie Mae accepts for the homeowners policy on a mortgaged home.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency affirmed A- insurer financial strength ratings, stable outlook, for Clear Blue Insurance Company, Clear Blue Specialty, Rock Ridge and Highlander Specialty on August 20, 2026. KBRA also flagged pressures: GAAP financial leverage rose to 43% at year-end 2025 from 33% a year earlier, interest coverage fell to low single digits, Vesttoo-related losses weighed on earnings, and the companies posted a combined statutory net loss of $18.8 million in 2025. KBRA's broader concerns are reliance on reinsurance (counterparty risk) and key-person risk. Rock Ridge is an admitted insurer, so if it ever failed, covered claims would fall to state guaranty funds, subject to each state's limits.

Who it suits

Clear Blue is not something a homeowner shops for; it is the name behind an Openly policy. For those policyholders, the relevant facts are an A- rating from both AM Best and KBRA, a model that leans heavily on reinsurers, and a homeowners book concentrated in one MGA.

• Strengths: A- (Excellent) from AM Best and A- (stable) from KBRA, reaffirmed in August 2026; admitted carrier with guaranty fund protection; backs Openly's broad coverage, including guaranteed replacement cost; a diversified $2.2 billion book across many programs.
• Weaknesses: heavy dependence on reinsurers, which became a problem in the 2023 Vesttoo episode; rising leverage and a 2025 statutory loss noted by KBRA; no direct service, so everything runs through the MGA; homeowners premium concentrated in a single program.

How to contact Clear Blue Insurance Group