Amwins Program Underwriters (APU) has launched a Self-Storage Facilities insurance program, a new offering designed to provide industry-specific protection for self-storage business owners and operators.
The program covers property, general liability, excess liability, crime, equipment breakdown, non-owned and hired auto, and inland marine, along with customers' goods legal liability and sale and disposal legal liability each up to $1 million, mobile equipment coverage, a property enhancement endorsement, and resident manager liability available upon request.
The program is backed by an A.M. Best "A" (Excellent) rated carrier and is available on both an admitted and non-admitted basis, with admitted coverage currently offered in 19 states and non-admitted availability in Florida, Georgia, and New York. Retail agents and brokers can submit business with a completed industry-standard application, a supplemental application, a tenant lease agreement, and five years of currently valued loss runs.
The launch responds to a large and still-expanding asset class. The US self-storage inventory reached more than 2.1 billion square feet in 2026, spread across more than 2,500 properties in various stages of development, with roughly one in three Americans currently renting a storage unit. Amwins said that growth is bringing a corresponding rise in exposure, including property damage and vandalism, theft, sale and disposal liability, and construction-related risk.
The sector's investment profile has also shifted. Institutional owners, including publicly traded REITs, now hold an estimated 45% of all US self-storage space, up sharply from two decades ago, and the four largest public self-storage REITs alone control roughly 30% of national inventory.
That institutional ownership has brought closer scrutiny of exposures beyond simple property risk. Public Storage has estimated that Los Angeles emergency regulations will reduce its same-store revenue growth by roughly 80 basis points in 2026, while Extra Space projected a similar 40 basis point headwind from restrictions in Los Angeles County, illustrating how regulatory and municipal risk factors are increasingly relevant to how self-storage operators are underwritten.
At the same time, tenant-facing revenue lines are also growing. Extra Space reported tenant insurance growth of 5% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, pointing to the continued importance of insurance products, including customers' goods coverage, as part of the broader self-storage business model that programs like Amwins' are now built to support.
Amwins enters an already competitive corner of the specialty market. Established program administrators such as MiniCo, which has specialized in self-storage coverage for more than five decades, and IGP Specialty have long argued that standard commercial property policies fall short for the sector, since self-storage exposures include specific coverages, such as customers' goods legal liability and sale and disposal liability, that a typical business owner's policy does not address.
Industry commentary published by Inside Self Storage this year noted that theft and vandalism trends have fluctuated as facility security has improved, while claims severity has climbed due to rising repair costs, supply-chain pressure on materials, and extreme weather, even as underwriting appetite and pricing have begun to stabilize in some regions as the broader property market softens.
Slip-and-fall claims also remain one of the leading sources of liability losses for operators, particularly during wet or icy months, underscoring why general liability and resident manager liability coverage are treated as core rather than optional components of a well-structured self-storage program.
Against that backdrop, entering a niche already served by decades-old specialists is a deliberate bet: Amwins appears to be counting on broader market access and underwriting flexibility to win business in a segment where institutional ownership, municipal regulation, and claims severity are all becoming more complex at the same time.
Dan Curran (pictured), executive vice president at Amwins Program Underwriters, said the new program helps retail agents and brokers deliver the specialized protection self-storage clients need.
"As exposures for self-storage facilities and operators become more complex, we're offering a straightforward way to address those risks," he said.
Amwins' entry into a niche already served by decades-old specialists suggests the firm sees room to compete on distribution and underwriting flexibility, even in a corner of the market where institutional ownership, regulatory exposure, and claims severity are all becoming more complex at once.
