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…60% of all catastrophe losses are not insured. And the investment that the industry is doing is focused on how to protect their balance sheet, which sometimes leads to even larger protection gaps. So, we really started looking at: “what does the world need from insurance to get through the changes that are going in extreme weather…
Charlie Sidoti, executive director of InnSure
We say all the time that insurance is infrastructure. Just like a road or a bridge or a culvert or a dam—It’s as protective as any other piece of infrastructure you can have. And so, you really need to start looking at it that way, and when you do, you make different decisions in your planning.
Stephen Brandt, chief development officer, InnSure
As a prelude to the Ten Across Convergence in Jacksonville coming up on October 22nd—where insurability planning will be a focal topic—we’re sharing a conversation with Charlie Sidoti and Stephen Brandt, founders of the nonprofit InnSure. Concerned about the risk protection gap growing with climate change in the U.S., these two have applied their combined decades of insurance industry expertise to form a professional network dedicated to developing insurance products that support—and therefore incentivize—communities’ proactive fight against the risks they face.
Ten Across participants are well-aware of disaster recovery costs soaring in this part of the country. Between 2020 and 2022, State Farm and Allstate dropped a shocking 2.8 million insurance policies in fire-prone areas of California—yet Florida and Louisiana lead the nation with even higher nonrenewal rates. Regulatory reform is struggling to relieve insurers and the insured, and the private market continues to retreat as losses exceed underwriting metrics.
InnSure believes the insurance sector can lead the development of new models that incentivize risk reduction and community-based action—that in fact it must, in order to remain viable as an industry.
In this episode, Charlie Sidoti and Stephen Brandt walk us through the challenges and solutions insurers consider in devising effective products to support climate risk mitigation—a preview to the multi-sector problem-solving work that attendees will undertake at the upcoming 10X Convergence.
Relevant Articles and Resources
Charlie Sidoti: “Running Toward Climate Risk” (InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com, August 2022)
“How Shutdown Gridlock Could Impede Disaster Preparedness” (The New York Times, Sept. 2025)
“A Trump Administration Playbook: No Data, No Problem” (The New York Times, Sept. 2025)
REPORT: “Next to Fall: The Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis is Here—And Getting Worse” (Senate Budget Committee, December 2024)
“The risky economics of living without homeowners insurance” (Reuters, March 2024)
Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts
Carolyn Kousky on Using Insurance Models to Drive Positive Change
Checking in with Dave Jones on California’s Insurance Outlook
Urban Expert Bill Fulton’s Perspective of How LA Can Rebuild Following the Fires
2023 Insurance Series on California, Louisiana, and Florida
Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: From Now On and Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
Guest Speakers
Charlie Sidoti is executive director of InnSure, a network of insurance professionals and consultants developing innovative industry tools that contribute to the battle against climate risk. Charlie is also a founding coalition partner of GreenieRE, a reinsurance company with a mission to de-risk and unlock capital for clean energy projects. He has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry.
Stephen Brandt is chief development officer and founding board member of InnSure. Stephen previously served as senior vice president of sales for Vitech Systems Group, a group insurance and pension administration software company. He has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance technology field.
