Bermuda-based MGA Banyan Risk has set up a new underwriting business aimed at one of the hardest risks to place in the US property market -- buildings and homes exposed to wildfire.
Red Fox Risk will write non-admitted cover for commercial properties and high-value homes in California and the wider Western US, with primary limits of up to $10 million. Capacity comes from Argenta Syndicate 2121 at Lloyd's alongside reinsurance partners that Banyan did not name.
The venture will be led by chief executive Brian Espie and chief underwriting officer Sarah Kennedy. Banyan said both have extensive catastrophe and property underwriting experience. Red Fox plans to combine granular property data, geospatial information and catastrophe analytics with underwriter judgment to price individual risks.
"The answer is not simply more capacity; it is a better understanding of the risk," said Tim Usher-Jones, chief executive of Banyan Risk.
Espie said the business was built around disciplined risk selection and portfolio management, and that the aim was to build lasting solutions with brokers and capital partners rather than react to the market cycle. Kennedy said that brokers and property owners in wildfire areas needed dependable cover from underwriters who understood the individual risk.
Ian Burford, underwriting director and active underwriter at Argenta Syndicate 2121, said the syndicate believed sustainable wildfire capacity depended on specialist expertise, robust data and portfolio discipline, and that Red Fox brought those together.
Red Fox marks a notable change of direction for Banyan. The MGA was founded in Bermuda in 2021 as a directors and officers specialist, writing D&O for life sciences companies, IPOs, technology firms and SPACs. Last year it secured additional D&O capacity from PartnerRe, allowing it to offer limits of up to $10 million. It has since added lines including inland marine and marine property, and earlier this year it appointed Dan Malloy as executive managing director to support its next phase of growth.
The model for Red Fox follows the same approach Banyan describes for its other lines: backing an experienced underwriting team, then supplying the technology, infrastructure and distribution.
The launch comes as admitted carriers continue to limit their exposure in wildfire zones across the West. In California, the FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, held approximately 684,000 policies by March 2026. That is several times its size at the end of the last decade, and much of the growth comes from homes that admitted carriers no longer write. The FAIR Plan provides fire-only cover, so many policyholders combine it with a difference-in-conditions policy to fill the gaps.
That gap has increasingly been filled by the surplus lines market, especially for commercial property and homes whose values exceed what the FAIR Plan will insure.
For retail and wholesale brokers, Red Fox is a new market for the risks they find hardest to place. The $10 million primary limit is meaningful for high-value homes and mid-sized commercial schedules, although larger accounts will still need layered programs.
The emphasis on granular, property-level data matters too. Underwriters pricing individual risks will want detailed information on defensible space, construction and mitigation work. Brokers who can supply those details at submission are more likely to secure terms, and better ones. Clients who have invested in hardening their properties may also find a market prepared to credit that work.
