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In This Issue
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New
Feature: Oblique Imagery
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Featured
WebEx: New RiskMeter Mapping
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Parcel
Boundaries Coming Soon to RiskMeter
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Second
Data Source Added to Building Characteristic Report
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Featured
WebEx: Building Characteristics
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BuildFax's
Roof Reports Coming Soon!
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Featured
WebEx: Custom Coastlines
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Hail
& Tornado Studies
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Featured
WebEx: Managing Hail & Tornado Risks
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New
Feature: RMS Modeling
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KY
Tax Code Enhancement
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Automated
Batch Processing Coming Soon!
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YouTube
Channel: Web Services Recording
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Upcoming
Events
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Online
Training Schedule
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Unsubscribe
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New Feature: Oblique
Imagery
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Aerial photography
(2D images) has played a vital role in the P&C underwriting
process. 2D images can provide information about the placement
of buildings and property features. Its only drawback is that
it doesn't allow you to see the sides of objects. Oblique imagery
though takes 2D images one step further. If you're not familiar
with oblique imagery, it's aerial photography that is captured at
multiple oblique angles (approximately 45 degrees). This
imagery turns 2D into 3D, allowing users to see a house, building,
fire hydrant, street, etc., in
its entirety.
RiskMeter is proud to announce that we are in the process of
adding oblique imagery to our service. Currently, it's on our
testing servers, but we're going to be offering it to our customers
in the near future. Using this technology will help you to:
- Make
better underwriting & pricing decisions
- Quickly
identify red flags in regards to a structure or property
- Better
assess homeowner, auto and commercial claims
- Inspect
roof tops from multiple angles
- Perform
auto & home claims inspections
If you're interested in learning more about this
feature, please contact Daniel Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online at
617.737.4444 or Email
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Featured WebEx: New RiskMeter Mapping
Unveiled
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On Wednesday, August 24th at
2pm (EDT) Daniel Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online
will unveil our latest mapping technology before it goes live.
This is a great chance to see first-hand how this technology will
revolutionize the underwriting process. Currently, we're in the
process of adding two new features to our service.
Our first preview will demonstrate the oblique imagery
we're adding to our service. If you're not familiar with
oblique imagery, it's aerial photography that is captured at multiple
oblique angles (approximately 45 degrees). This imagery turns
2D into 3D, allowing users to see a house, building, fire hydrant,
street, etc.,
in its entirety.
Our second preview will demonstrate our new parcel
level boundaries. For those of you who don't know, RiskMeter has been
offering parcel level geocoding for some time. Since this
introduction many of our customers have asked if they could
"see" the physical boundary outlined on the parcel.
We've taken your feedback and are adding this to our service as well.
By showing parcel level boundaries it will allow underwriters to dig
deeper and see if a parcel falls into a FEMA flood zone, brush fire
or storm surge area.
Registration
To secure your spot for this event, please register here. If you cannot make
the event, please Email Ryan Turgeon, Customer Support & Training
and he will send you the slides and an archive of the presentation.
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Parcel Boundaries Coming
Soon to RiskMeter
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For those of you
that do not know, the RiskMeter has been offering parcel level
geocoding for some time. A parcel geocode uses a parcel
boundary to place a location at the center of a parcel and does not
use the traditional interpolation methodology. Since this
introduction, many users have asked if they could "see" the
physical boundary outlined on the parcel.
We are working diligently to get this introduced as a report so the
user can see the parcel boundary associated with the address.
Some users have asked because it gives them a better sense of where
the building is located (via our aerial imagery) and others have
expressed interest using this in conjunction with our wide variety of
reports. Useful examples would be:
- Does
the parcel touch a FEMA flood zone?
- Is
the parcel subjected to storm surge?
- Does
the parcel touch a brush fire zone?
- Is
the parcel odd shaped and does the geocoded location need
correcting?
- Are
there multiple buildings and structures that need to be
identified?
Beyond answering the questions listed above, this also
gives the user confidence and can provide clients and management an
improved cosmetic "look" to the output. Further, once
this data is available, we will return the parcel APN (Assessor's
Parcel Number) as part of the output as well. Returning the APN
will enable future enhancements, like appending additional data
associated with the parcel, such as building characteristics that
might be unattainable via an address only lookup. This will be
available in both our on-line and integrated environments.
For more information, please contact Jamie Munson, Director of
Consulting Services, RiskMeter Online at 860.854.6125
or Email
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Second Data Source Added
to Building Characteristic Report
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The importance of
building characteristics can be felt throughout the insurance
industry from Reinsurers all the way down to Brokers. When
building characteristic information isn't provided, it's common for year built, number of
stories, roof shape, etc., fields to be labeled
as "unknown" during the modeling process. This incomplete
information directly affects Reinsurers, Carriers and Brokers.
In order to increase our building characteristic information, we've
partnered with a second data provider. Although both of our
providers use assessor data, we feel leveraging another source will
increase the hit rate and number of fields returned for this
report.
For more information, please contact Daniel Munson, Founder,
RiskMeter Online at 617.737.4444
or Email
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Featured WebEx: Building
Characteristics
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On Wednesday, September 7th
at 2pm (EDT) Daniel Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online
will demonstrate RiskMeter's Building Characteristic report via
WebEx. Whether you work for a Reinsurer, Carrier or Broker by
attending this Webinar, you'll see for yourself how you can gain a
competitive edge by:
- Increasing
New Business & Renewals
- Improving
Ease of Doing Business for Agents
- Saving
Money on Adjusted Premiums
- Improving
Catastrophe Modeling Results
- Lowering
Reinsurance Costs
- Boosting
Underwriting Results
This WebEx will be open to all prospects
and customers.
We have a limited number of seats for this event. To secure
your spot, register here
A few months ago we wrote a very detailed story about the importance
of building characteristics in Modeling. Recent modeling changes are
leading to higher PML estimates for carriers. These changes will have
a ripple effect throughout the insurance industry article
Questions?
Please contact Ryan Turgeon, Customer Service, Training and Support
at 617.737.4444
or Email
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BuildFax's Roof Reports
Coming Soon!
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RiskMeter Online is
proud to announce that we are in the process of adding BuildFax's
roof age reports to our service. We will begin by running
batch reports for our users internally.
Turbo-Charge
your Wind Mitigation Re-inspections
When the state of Florida launched its home mitigation program, its
goal was to encourage homeowners to invest money in strengthening
their homes from tropical storms and hurricanes. Those who
participated would receive credits for insurance discounts.
Unfortunately, the Florida mitigation effort was riddled with fraud,
inefficiencies and errors. Currently, there are thousands of
homes that are receiving wind credits they don't deserve. Many
carriers have launched initiatives to verify wind credits through
re-inspection. This can be a very time consuming and expensive
process! However, by leveraging a BuildFax Report, you can
quickly and easily pinpoint properties which may need further
review. This can save you an extraordinary amount of money and
time, and let you allocate resources where they are most effective.
Why is Roof
Age Important?
Roof age is not only important in Florida but other parts of the
country too. Many carriers have rules related to the age of a
roof. Older roofs are prone to more damage. BuildFax has
collected and processed the original building permit data to ensure
underwriters are getting the correct information. Although
roofs may look 5-10 years old, you'll often be surprised to learn
through the BuildFax database that construction records reveal it's
closer to 15-20 years old. When it comes to risk
associated with roof age, what
you don't know can cost you money!
BuildFax's BatchPlus™ roof age analysis
is a must have for risk mitigation. For more information
about pricing, please contact Daniel Munson, Founder, RiskMeter
Online at 617.737.4444
or Email
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Featured WebEx: Custom
Coastlines
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MGA's quite often
write for more than one carrier. When measuring the distance to
coast, this can be problematic. There is no agreed upon
standard as to what the coastline is. Therefore, various
carriers can interpret the distances differently, which causes
confusion for the MGA. The MGA may not know exactly how a
carrier measures the distance to the coast. For the MGA, this
makes calculating the distance to coast confusing and time
consuming. Also, if the MGA is not using the carrier's custom
coastline, they may actually get back different distances than the
carrier!
The RiskMeter has a solution. On a single RiskMeter account,
multiple coastlines can be used. So if an MGA works with four
different carriers, the RiskMeter can return four separate answers.
This way, you could get the correct answer for each carrier.
But to do this, we need the help of the MGA community. Let us
know what carriers you need coastlines for. Also, speak with
your carriers, and let them know how much this would help you.
If we can get each carrier to define their custom coastline for us,
we can load them on your RiskMeter account if you write business with
them. This way, you would type in the address once, and get
back the distance to each carrier according to their rules. The
custom coastlines can also be used with our web services, which
enables straight through processing.
On Wednesday,
September 14th at 2pm (EDT) Bradley Sherwin, Sales
Manager, RiskMeter Online will lead a live Online demonstration via
WebEx. This event will be open to customers and prospects but
we have a limited amount of seats. To secure your spot, visit
our registration page
For information on pricing or to see sample maps, please contact Brad
Sherwin 617.737.4444
or Email
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Hail & Tornado Studies - Model Overview
& Results
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Each year as we
update our hail and tornado models with the latest data, we also
update our models' findings. RiskMeter's hail and tornado
studies are designed to help insurers identify the patterns and
trends in data. Our goal is to help insurers understand what
the models mean and give guidance on how to use them in
underwriting. To receive a copy, please contact Amanda Brax,
Account Executive, RiskMeter Online at 617.737.4444
or Email
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Featured WebEx: Managing
Hail & Tornado Risks - A New Type of Analysis
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The recent tornado
outbreaks have been devastating to victims and insurers bottom
lines. Loss estimates for the recent storms have been as high
as $6
billion, and in general, hail and tornado losses have
been growing over the past couple of years. Carriers writing in the
Midwest are starting to ask, "How can we manage this growing
threat?"
For years, RiskMeter has offered the CDS Hail & Tornado
models. These models, based upon historical data, can identify
the areas that are most at risk for losses from these perils.
Typically, we rank locations on a score from 0 (no risk) to 5
(extreme risk). However, there are limitations to these models.
This approach can identify high risk areas, but there are large areas
of the Midwest that match this description. So something more,
some additional type of analysis must be done to take things a step
further...
The second piece of the puzzle is concentration risk. The question is
not simply where is the risk, but where is the greatest exposure to
these risks? And where could the biggest loss occur, and how
much is at risk? With this new analysis, we combine the
hail/tornado scoring with concentration analysis to give you a
complete picture of risk. With this information, we can help
you to answer the questions posed above. Then you can take
actions to limit your exposure in the high risk areas. For
example, to put a moratorium in place in the areas where the hail/tornado
frequency is high, and you have very high policy
concentrations. We can show you where these specific areas are.
If you are interested in learning more, contact Daniel Munson,
Founder, RiskMeter Online at 617.737.4444
or Email
On Wednesday,
September 21st at 2pm (EDT) Daniel Munson,
Founder, RiskMeter Online will demonstrate our hail & tornado
reports, talk about risk mitigation strategies and answer
questions. To reserve your spot, register here
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New Feature: RMS Modeling
Results Sent to Your Inbox
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We've added a new feature to our RMS Modeling. It's
now possible to get RMS Modeling results sent straight to your inbox
(valid work address required). You'll notice on the bottom of
the RMS Modeling page, we've added a box for users to submit their
Email address. Once the modeling is completed, RiskMeter will send an
Email with a link to your inbox. The RMS Modeling takes about a
minute to process. So instead of waiting, by entering your
Email address, RiskMeter will automatically Email the final results
to you. If you click on the link, you'll be taken to a page
which has your modeling results. This tool will be very handy if you
don't have time to wait for your results. If you have any questions,
please contact Ryan Turgeon, Customer Support & Training,
RiskMeter Online at 617.737.4444
or Email
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KY Tax Code Enhancement
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We are considering
enhancing our Kentucky Tax Reports so that it would automatically
calculate taxes for users. Calculating KY taxes correctly can
be very tricky because the rates change per jurisdiction and line of
business. In addition, certain types of businesses are
exempt. This additional capability would allow smaller
companies without a significant presence in KY to calculate the
premiums accurately, without a large IT investment. For more
information, please contact Dan Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online at 617.737.4444
or Email
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Automated Batch/Schedule
Processing Coming Soon!
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RiskMeter is
pleased to announce that we will soon be able to take batches in an
automated fashion. If you are used to getting schedules, your
system can now send the schedule as
an XML file to us, and we will append the RiskMeter info to your
table. This will then be ready for you to pick up via
FTP. This will allow you to completely automate by adding
RiskMeter data to your submissions. It will eliminate the manual steps
required of uploading and downloading to process batches. For
companies looking to automate their underwriting more, we feel this
is a step towards that goal. For additional information,
contact Dan Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online at 617.737.4444
or Email
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RiskMeter Youtube: Web
Services
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We have created a
Youtube channel for our users. Over the next few months we will
be adding more of our featured WebEx presentations to this
channel. We have just added our July Featured WebEx: RiskMeter
Web Services to Youtube. To listen to this presentation, please go here
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Upcoming Events - Meet the
CDS Team!
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RiskMeter Online
will be attending or exhibiting at the following upcoming
conferences. Whether you're a customer or prospect, we'd love to
meet with you onsite at these exceptional events! Don't
hesitate to stop by our booth or if you wish to schedule an
appointment, please contact Dan Munson (Email) or Brad Sherwin (Email)
at 617.737.4444
Disaster
Recovery Journal
September 11 - 14, 2011 * San Diego, CA
Sword User
Conference
September 18-20, 2011 * Boston, MA
PCI IT Tech
October 2-5, 2011 * Charlotte, NC
NAPSLO
Annual Convention
October 10-13, 2011 * San Diego, CA
Target
Markets 11th Annual Summit
October 24-26, 2011 * Scottsdale, AZ
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Online Training
Schedule
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In order to help
you utilize the RiskMeter Online more effectively, we are now
offering complimentary training to all of our customers. This
is a great way for your organization to have its most pressing
questions answered, learn about the latest risk reports and discover
how to utilize cutting-edge features, such as: Birdseye Geocoding,
One Click
Ruler and Manual
Placement.
To attend any of
the complimentary training sessions, please register here
Western Risks
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
National
Risks
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Western
Risks
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
National
Risks
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Western
Risks
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
National
Risks
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
These events are open to customers and prospects. To
secure your spot for the events below, register here
Event: New RiskMeter Mapping Unveiled
Date &
Time: Wednesday, August 24 at 2pm (EDT)
Event:
Building Characteristics
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 7 at 2pm (EDT)
Event: Custom Coastlines
Date &
Time: Wednesday, September 14 at 2pm (EDT)
Event:
Managing Hail & Tornado Risks
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 21 at 2pm (EDT)
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