Covwell earthquake insurance platform

What is Covwell?

Covwell is not an insurance company — it is an application platform and program administrator that serves as the intake infrastructure for residential earthquake insurance submissions. When you fill out the application on this site, that information routes through Covwell's structured intake form, which captures the underwriting details that carriers need to price and evaluate your risk. The platform is the connective tissue between you as the property owner, your broker, and the insurance carriers who will ultimately underwrite and issue a policy.

The information the platform collects is specifically designed for earthquake underwriting — not a generic property insurance form adapted for earthquake. Covwell's intake captures the seismic-relevant details that matter most: year built, construction type (wood frame vs. concrete vs. steel), foundation type (slab-on-grade, standard raised, cripple wall, post-and-pier), number of stories, soft-story characteristics, retrofit status and documentation, Coverage A amount, deductible preference, and personal property limits. Each of these factors has meaningful impact on earthquake loss exposure and carrier pricing. A form that misses foundation type or conflates retrofit status is an incomplete underwriting submission — Covwell's structure ensures the application is complete enough for carriers to make a pricing decision.

After you complete the application, a licensed broker at Bollinsure Insurance Services reviews the submission, clarifies any details if needed, and submits to the eligible markets in our panel. The broker's review adds a human layer of quality control: checking that foundation type is correctly described, confirming that retrofit documentation is adequate for the carrier requirements, and identifying any property characteristics that would change market selection. This workflow — structured digital intake followed by licensed broker review and multi-market submission — is more efficient and more complete than starting the process with a blank form or a phone call.

Property types in the Covwell workflow

The Covwell platform is designed to handle the full range of California residential earthquake submissions that independent brokers encounter. The primary use cases are described below.

What the application captures

Earthquake insurance pricing is more sensitive to property characteristics than almost any other residential insurance product. Understanding what the application asks for — and why — helps you prepare the most complete and accurate submission possible, which directly affects the quality of quotes you receive.

Year built is the single most commonly impactful variable in earthquake underwriting. California adopted major seismic construction code changes in 1975 and again in 1979, with incremental updates since. Homes built before 1940, before 1960, before 1979, and after 1979 represent meaningfully different risk profiles. Pre-1940 homes often feature unreinforced masonry chimneys, older foundation systems, and construction methods that perform poorly in earthquakes. Pre-1979 homes may have cripple wall foundations without modern bracing requirements. Knowing the year built allows carriers to apply the appropriate vulnerability assumptions.

Foundation type is often the most important single variable after year built. Foundation categories — slab-on-grade, standard raised wood-frame, cripple wall, post-and-pier, hillside — have dramatically different seismic performance. Cripple wall foundations, common in pre-1960 California homes, are prone to collapse during moderate earthquakes unless properly braced. Post-and-pier foundations common in hillside homes can fail at the connection points. Slab-on-grade foundations, standard in post-1970 construction, generally perform well. The application captures specific foundation type rather than leaving it as "unknown" — accuracy here directly affects the quality of market response.

Retrofit status and documentation can significantly affect both eligibility and pricing. A home with a documented FEMA P-50 compliant cripple wall retrofit is a materially different risk than an identical home without retrofit. The Covwell platform captures retrofit status and, where available, documentation references. Carriers that use catastrophe models to price risk — like Palomar Specialty — can credit retrofit work in their pricing where others use simpler rating tiers. Having retrofit documentation ready to provide with the application often results in better quotes.

Coverage selections — Coverage A amount, deductible tier (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%), personal property limit, and loss-of-use coverage — are captured in the application and affect both eligibility and pricing comparisons across carriers. The platform structures these selections clearly so the broker can present apples-to-apples comparisons across markets.

The broker workflow advantage

A complete, well-documented application is the foundation of getting competitive earthquake quotes. Incomplete submissions — missing foundation type, unknown year built, no retrofit documentation — result in either declinations or highly conservative pricing from carriers who must assume the worst case when information is absent. The old way of getting earthquake quotes involved phone calls, faxed ACORD forms, and carriers asking follow-up questions one at a time. This process was slow, created information asymmetries between carriers, and often left the best-priced markets without enough information to compete effectively.

Covwell's structured intake form solves this by capturing all the underwriting-relevant fields in a single, digital submission. When we receive a completed application, we can review it as a complete file — not a partial submission waiting for follow-up questions. Once the broker confirms the application is accurate and complete, it can be submitted to multiple carriers simultaneously. This parallel submission process is faster than sequential carrier-by-carrier submissions and ensures that no market is overlooked. Carriers receiving a complete, structured submission can return pricing faster than they can on an incomplete file that requires follow-up.

The platform also maintains application history, which matters when circumstances change. If you complete a seismic retrofit after applying, we can update the application to document the retrofit and resubmit to carriers — potentially capturing better pricing without starting the entire process over. If your Coverage A changes at homeowners renewal, the updated application is easy to resubmit. The structured approach creates a record that benefits the ongoing broker relationship, not just the initial transaction.

Frequently asked about Covwell