Verisk Insurance Solutions Announces Peril and Incident Report

New tool helps commercial property insurers understand site-specific exposures to make better underwriting decisions

JERSEY CITY, N.J., May 5, 2015 - Verisk Insurance Solutions, a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk, has developed a new analytic report that provides carriers a competitive advantage by helping underwriters accurately determine the likelihood of fire incidents and a broad spectrum of non-modelled weather events. The Peril and Incident Report is offered as part of Verisk's newly enhanced ProMetrix^® suite of commercial property data and analytics. Verisk Insurance Solutions is a Verisk Analytics VRSK business.

The Peril and Incident Report provides carriers with a historical record of reported fire and gas emergency incidents and non-modelled weather events, both of which are analyzed and presented to help identify the likelihood of a future adverse event.

"The report provides additional insight by detailing prior documented incidents and scoring the likelihood of future weather-related events," said Anil Vasagiri, vice president of commercial property at Verisk Insurance Solutions. "Carriers can use this new information to better understand risks, align them with their underwriting guidelines, and prioritize inspections for those properties that have a history of incidents but did not result in a corresponding claim - all of which points to a competitive advantage."

Industry experience indicates that Insureds typically do not submit claims for incidents that are less than the policy deductible, which may keep carriers in the dark about risks associated with a specific property. However, the Peril and Incident Report documents fire and gas emergency reports for the six most recent years available. Those incidents may suggest the presence of risks and lack of precautions, previously unknown to the carrier, that warrant additional examination.   

"Carriers have told us that a major pain-point for them is the lack of historic claims information at the point of underwriting," said Glen Brooks, vice president of commercial property at Verisk Insurance Solutions. "As a result, we're working with carriers to make that insight available in the report so they can make the most informed underwriting decisions going forward."

Drawing on data from Verisk Climate, the report also provides details around events, such as hail, wind, lightning, and wildfire. The report includes a trend indication for each of the events, historical occurrences down to the street level of the property for the last five years, the date of the last event, and a hail damage score that shows the probability that a damage-producing hail event affected the property in the past. Verisk Climate is a Verisk Analytics business.

"Our data and analytics on weather perils and terrain used in this new report represent decades of leadership in numerous technologies in environmental, weather and climate sensing, and modelling, including ground-based radar and sensor networks, as well as aerial and satellite remote sensing," said Arindam Samanta, Ph.D., senior manager of underwriting products and analytics at Verisk Climate. "Insurers are increasingly recognizing the unprecedented granularity and accuracy of these assets to empower more effective underwriting and claims management."

In addition, the report includes business classification information (SIC code) and related secondary classifications that may warrant additional examination, critical information about the property including fire hydrant locations, property photos, distance to major bodies of water, Public Protection Classification (PPC(TM)), Building Code Effectiveness Grade (BCEGS^®), and details about the terrain that may impact the spread of wildfires and increase reconstruction costs.

Verisk's proprietary ProMetrix database of more than 3.5 million commercial properties and other Verisk and third-party resources ensures information is available on more than 15 million businesses in the United States.

About Verisk Insurance Solutions
A Verisk Analytics VRSK business, Verisk Insurance Solutions is a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk. Drawing upon vast experience in data management, security, and predictive modeling to serve its clients, Verisk Insurance Solutions includes the industry-leading brands of ISO, AIR Worldwide, and Xactware. In the United States and around the world, Verisk Insurance Solutions helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets. For more information, visit www.verisk.com/insurance.

Contact:
Giuseppe Barone/Colleen Finley
MWW Group (for Verisk Insurance Solutions)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com
cfinley@mww.com