Picking up where an ailing insurance company left off may not sound like an immediate recipe for success. But Pablo Cejas is hoping Ascendant Commercial Insurance will thrive where two Hialeah-based insurers failed.

Ascendant was formed in August to provide coverage to businesses whose policies are being canceled as state insurance regulators liquidate two other companies, First Commercial Insurance and First Commercial Transportation and Property Insurance. Those two firms didn't have enough money to pay claims and hadn't bought sufficient reinsurance to cover some of their losses.

At the time the First Commercial firms were shut down, they had about 18,000 policies on their books.

Ascendant is starting out with an initial $6 million in capital -- all cash invested by the Cejas family. The firm will offer coverage to First Commercial policyholders, including writing policies for taxi, towncar and limo fleets.

``We were attracted to the core focus of this business. It's a very viable niche,'' says Pablo Cejas, 39, who will serve as president and chief executive of the new firm.

Ascendant also will write workers compensation and liability coverage for small- and medium-sized businesses.

``These business make up the backbone of the economy in the State of Florida and the country. They have specific insurance needs. That's a fundamental premise that won't go away no matter what the condition of the economy is.''

However, Ascendant won't write property coverage because of the high exposure to hurricane risk in Florida.

``I don't want to say we'll never do it. But the risks in [property insurance] can be large. We might consider it down the road,'' says Cejas.

Cejas, who serves as vice president of PLC Investments, which manages the family's real estate properties as well as investments in small- and medium-sized private firms, says the family has been considering an insurer as a potential investment for some time.

``We believe this to be an ideal opportunity for us based on our knowledge of the insurance business, experience owning and operating regulated businesses, and knowledge of the geographic markets in which Ascendant is doing business,'' he says.

SPEEDY APPROVAL

Ascendant won quick approval to take over the First Commercial policies in part because the Cejas family had the cash ready to invest and it also had industry experience.

Michael Colodny, an attorney with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, which represented Ascendant as it was going through the approval process in Tallahassee, says regulators were swayed in Ascendant's favor because of the family's experience in the insurance business.

``The receiver was looking for a white knight to provide coverage for the policies that were about to be dropped,'' says Colodny.

Cejas raised his hand.

The Office of Insurance Regulation says it gave quick approval to Cejas' application to start a new insurer because of the family's knowledge of the insurance industry.

Cejas' father, Paul, has a track record in turning around an ailing insurer -- though not a property-casualty company.

With a group of investors, Paul Cejas purchased a health maintenance organization that had been taken over by regulators. Over five ears, they turned it into CareFlorida Health Systems -- by the late 1990s, the country's largest Hispanic-owned healthcare company. It was sold to Foundation Health of California in 1994 for $250 million in a stock swap.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@