At PURE, insurance is about more than just the things we protect. It’s about our members. It’s about making them smarter about risk. It’s about helping them reduce their chances of experiencing a claim. And it’s about making them more resilient so that if a claim does happen, they can recover faster and with greater ease. PURE is a member-owned property and casualty insurer designed exclusively for financially successful families and driven by a purpose of doing what is right for them.
Alignment of Interests
PURE’s member-owned model means that the interests of our membership are not at odds with delivering returns to disinterested shareholders. We focus on doing what’s right for our members and are able to deliver excellent service while saving them an average of 20 percent per year.1
Commitment to Transparency
We serve smart, sophisticated people who want to know where their money is going, how prices are set and how PURE is being managed. So we tell them. We issue an annual report each year, share Pricing Principles for how rates are set and provide a detailed look into the governance of PURE.
Dedication to Service
We deliver a service experience that minimizes the demands on our members’ time by providing a variety of resources to prevent losses and assisting in the claim process and beyond.
“We were able to look at the natural conflicts between policyholders and shareholders and design a business that would create an alignment, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Ross Buchmueller, president & chief executive officer
Uniquely Structured
Ross Buchmueller is the president and CEO of the PURE Group of Insurance Companies. His career spans more than 30 years and has been exclusively focused on the specialized property and casualty insurance needs of high net worth individuals and families. After spending more than a decade at the Chubb Group, Ross founded AIG’s Private Client Group and served as its president for more than six years. After witnessing firsthand the inefficiencies in the high net worth insurance market, he decided to do something about it: In early 2006, he and two colleagues, Martin Hartley and Jeffrey Paraschac, set out to create an insurance company designed to reduce the natural conflicts that exist between shareholders and policyholders and provide exceptional coverage, service and significant savings.
Our membership is at the center of everything we do. These talented and accomplished people are why we exist as an organization, and they make us better every day. To tell the PURE story, we start with their stories. Here are just a couple.
Ron & Linda DeKoven
Many PURE members own substantial collections of art, cars, wine or sports memorabilia. For most, like Ron and Linda DeKoven, collecting is more about passion than investing. The DeKovens seek out great wine to enjoy drinking and sharing with friends. They collect beautiful cars they love to restore and drive, large-scale model trains that take them back to their childhood and art that stirs their emotions and tells the story of their lives together.
Ron is most passionate about his model trains. Their garage is full, equally divided between his trains and a collection of antique vehicles, which includes sports cars, motorcycles and motor scooters.
Together, the couple also enjoys art. Ron’s career has them traveling frequently, which allows them to visit galleries all around the world. Several of their favorite pieces of art, including a Warhol painting that Ron surprised Linda with, were purchased during these gallery visits.
All these collections were threatened when the Tubbs Fire broke out in Calistoga, a little over a mile from their home. Luck and wind patterns were on their side, however, and the home was spared. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for their neighborhood, so the DeKovens retreated to a hotel for a few weeks, then left for a previously planned business trip.
While they were away, and as the fire rescinded from the area, PURE’s claims team, together with smoke remediation engineers and cleaning crews, began proactively visiting the homes of all area members to assess damage and begin repairs.
While there was no damage from fire or soot, there was a very strong smell of smoke throughout the home, especially in the wine cellar. The wine, the Warhol and the rest of the art, furniture, model trains and classic cars were all assessed by the Haven Art Group and determined to be unharmed. Haven provided several recommendations to help keep these items safe from future damage, including enhancements to the ventilation system in the wine cellar.
“As a safety measure, PURE recommended that we have the air quality inside our home tested,” said Ron. “It honestly seemed excessive to me, but I agreed.” The findings indicated that the wildfires left dangerous levels of carbon in the attic. “I realized in horror the health risk that we could have been living with had it not been for PURE’s recommendation.
“I can’t emphasize enough how decent the people we’ve dealt with from PURE are. The way we were treated was incredible. I have had a few different experiences with insurance companies, all of which have been good but never easy. I felt like PURE was representing me.”
Nina Mehta
Eight years ago, ready to begin a new chapter in her life, Nina Mehta settled into her new home in Santa Rosa, California. She loved the home for its 360-degree views. It was also located near her office, NeilMed Pharmaceuticals, of which she is the president and co-owner. Her home, like those of many of our members, was an extension of her identity, filled with sentimental objects from different phases in her life.
The Tubbs Fire started around 10 p.m. on October 8, just a few miles from Nina’s home. Like so many area residents, Nina went to bed that night unaware of the impending threat; hours later, she was awoken by the sound of her dog barking, the smell of smoke and a police officer at her door instructing her to evacuate immediately. With only the clothes on her back, she took her dog and fled.
The next morning, she learned that virtually every home in her neighborhood and the surrounding area, including hers, had been burned to the ground. Photographs, her jewelry collection and many other items of high sentimental value were completely destroyed.
Nina did have a safe in which she kept many valuable pieces of jewelry. The safe was recovered, but the jewelry she wore every day, including a particularly cherished and high-value ring, had been left out on her dresser that evening. Nina was certain the pieces were gone.
PURE claims adjuster Andy Brotherton met Nina at her property to survey the damage. “Following devastating events like this, I always try to get a sense of whether there are items that seem to hold more meaning for the member,” said Andy. “For Nina, it was her jewelry.”
As Nina took in the sight of her home, Andy began sifting through the rubble. After nearly an hour, he found a bracelet. It was not one of the more sentimental pieces, but the discovery did help to direct his search. He called in a crew to help sift through the ashes in search of more. The team found some of Nina’s jewelry, including the cherished ring and some earrings, along with two Ganesh statues, all of which were sent to be restored to their original condition.
“I was, and continue to be, overwhelmed by the loss—the loss of my home and everything I had to leave behind,” said Nina. “Rather than question me or give me a list of next steps, Andy let me come to terms with it all while he went off to dig through the damage. To do that for me, giving me that time and helping me find my belongings, was such a compassionate, personal touch.”
With her home completely destroyed, Nina was faced with the decision of whether or not to rebuild. PURE’s homeowners policy provides members in situations like this with options and flexibility. Realizing that this decision was one Nina was not immediately prepared to make, PURE issued payment so that when she was ready to decide, she had the financial flexibility to do so.
1. Average annual savings on homeowners insurance for members nationwide who reported prior carrier premiums from August 2018 through August 2019. Actual savings, if any, may vary.
