Harvey Wexelman: Miami Beach and Palm Beach High-Value Home, Wind, and Excess Flood Insurance Broker
Miami Beach and Palm Beach offer some of the finest waterfront living in the country, and the Atlantic knows it. The bayfront view is free. The hurricane deductible and the flood gap cost real money. Many buyers closing on Star Island, the Venetian Islands, Fisher Island, Coral Gables, or Palm Beach Island assume their high-value homeowners policy handles storm surge, or that a standard federal flood policy is enough. Homeowners policies typically exclude surface flood, NFIP caps residential building coverage at $250,000, and percentage hurricane deductibles can put six or even seven figures of wind exposure on a high-value home right back on your balance sheet.
Why work with Harvey
I am Harvey Wexelman, Harvey the Insurance Broker, and my resident office is right here at 501 West Ave in Miami Beach, Florida. For 30+ years, starting in the early 1990s, I have helped families, family offices, and wealth advisors read the fine print before a named storm tests it. Whether your home sits along Pine Tree Drive, La Gorce Island, Key Biscayne, Bal Harbour, Boca Raton, or South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach, South Florida underwriting turns on local details: FEMA flood zones AE and VE, base flood elevation certificates, impact-glass wind mitigation credits, seawall and dock exclusions, and Miami-Dade High-Velocity Hurricane Zone rebuild costs. I built Ask Harvey (ah.) to keep this simple. We translate complex coastal layers into one clear page.
What a full review covers
A complete South Florida coastal review checks four connected layers side by side. First, we model your hurricane deductible in dollars rather than percentages: under Florida Statute 627.701, insurers offer $500, 2 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent options, which generally apply on a calendar-year basis across covered hurricane losses with the same insurer group. On a $15 million dwelling limit, a 5 percent deductible is $750,000 out of pocket. Second, because Citizens Property Insurance in Miami-Dade is generally limited to structures with a dwelling replacement cost under $1 million, multi-million-dollar homes typically turn to private client admitted or surplus lines markets such as Chubb, PURE, Berkley One, Vault, or Private Client Select (formerly AIG Private Client Group), subject to appointments, appetite, and underwriting. Third, we pair primary flood with excess flood above NFIP's $250,000 building and $100,000 contents limits. Fourth, we check law and ordinance limits (25 percent, 50 percent, or higher on private client policy types) against FEMA's 50 percent substantial-damage rule, and we verify that any single-purpose LLC or revocable or irrevocable trust holding the deed is listed by name on both your primary property and excess umbrella policies.
A typical review
Made-up example, not a real client: A Miami Beach bayfront homeowner carrying a $12M dwelling limit held a standalone NFIP policy ($250k building cap), a 5 percent hurricane deductible ($600k exposure), and a deed recently transferred into a Florida revocable trust that had not been endorsed onto the homeowners or $10 million umbrella policy. During a quick declarations-page review, Harvey identified the $11.75M flood gap, modeled the 2 percent vs. 5 percent hurricane deductible math in dollars, and aligned the trust on both policies.
Common questions
How do hurricane deductibles work on a Miami Beach or Palm Beach homeowners policy?
A: In Florida, a hurricane deductible is usually calculated as a percentage of Coverage A (dwelling limit), with statutory options of $500, 2 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent under Fla. Stat. 627.701. It generally applies once per calendar year to covered hurricane wind losses with the same insurer group, starting when a hurricane warning is issued for any part of Florida until 72 hours after the last watch or warning ends.
Why do Miami Beach and Palm Beach waterfront homes usually need excess flood insurance?
A: Standard homeowners policies typically exclude surface flood and storm surge, and a federal National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy caps residential building coverage at $250,000 and contents at $100,000. For a coastal estate or luxury condo where interior build-out or structure replacement runs into the millions, private primary flood or excess flood coverage is typically used to layer above those federal caps, subject to carrier underwriting.
Can a high-value Miami Beach home use Citizens Property Insurance?
A: Generally only if the structure's dwelling replacement cost is under $1 million in Miami-Dade or Monroe County (or under $700,000 in most other Florida counties) under Fla. Stat. 627.351(6). Because the test is replacement cost to rebuild rather than market value, homes with a rebuild cost of $1 million or more typically require private client admitted carriers or surplus lines placements.
Talk to Harvey
Connect with Harvey for a quick declarations-page review
Want a plain-English read on how your policies actually fit together?
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