Vivint backs down on MGA plans

According to our sources, Utah-based Vivint is shelving its MGA insurance plans.

Vivint’s insurance ambitions started to take shape in November 2021 when CEO David Bywater shared that Vivint’s insurance agency was on pace to sell around 7k policies that year and revealed his plans to launch an MGA to develop specific homeowner coverages for customers. A few months later, the company named Ron Davies chief insurance officer, stating that he will lead all aspects of Vivint’s smart insurance business, including the company’s development of its MGA. Davies is a former executive of Safe Auto, Allstate and Progressive.

A Vivint spokesperson provided the following comment –

“When we started Vivint Insurance in 2021, we knew it would be a natural complement to our smart home offering and that long term, our technology can be used to reduce customer claims and losses while simultaneously improving customer experience. We have successfully validated the potential of the use case. In order to efficiently scale, we are moving to a partnership model to make the technology more widely available and will have more to share about our plans in the coming months.”

Vivint Warranty and Home Insurance has various carrier appointments for its agency-side of the business, including ones with Travelers, Liberty Mutual, and Progressive.

The news comes as State Farm and rival ADT start carrying out their plan to integrate services – for now, State Farm is offering ADT’s home security system at a discount in Indiana.