| In This Issue
|
| Coming Soon: NY Fire Tax Codes
|
| Updated: KY Municipal Tax Codes
|
| New Report: RI Windspeed
|
| RiskMeter Batch Enhancements
|
| Top Ten Tornado Prone Metro-Cities
|
| How to Manage Your Tornado
Exposure |
| Hail & Tornado Study
|
| Using Flood Elevation to Assess
Flood Risk |
| Customize Your Report Parameters
|
| New South Carolina Windspeed
Report |
| Upcoming Events
|
| Online Training Schedule
|
| Welcome to our Newest Customers
|
| Request a Hardcopy
|
| Contacts |
| Questions or Comments?
|
| Please Add Us to Your Safe
Sender List |
| Unsubscribe |
| Complimentary Test Drive of
Any Report |
| Join Our List
|
 | | |
| Coming Soon: NY Fire Tax
Codes |
|
Within the next few weeks, CDS will begin
testing a new NY Fire Tax report. This
report will accurately provide the proper taxing
jurisdiction for all of NY State. The
RiskMeter NY Fire Tax Code report is based
upon actual fire district maps provided by county
governments. In the past, the state DOI has
provided an incomplete and confusing address
listing for the tax (known as the NY Fire Tax
Manual). This list was hard to follow and
clearly incomplete. Since our new report is
based upon actual fire department maps, it will be
very accurate. If you are interested in beta
testing or learning more, contact Jamie Munson at
jmunson@cdsys.com or
860.854.6125 |
| Updated: KY Municipal
Tax |
|
CDS has recently updated its Kentucky Premium
Tax report. Under new legislation passed by
the State of Kentucky, insurers must use Risk
Location Technology, like the RiskMeter to
calculate premium taxes. CDS has improved
its report in two ways. First, all of the
information has been updated. Second, we
have used the official boundary definitions as
provided by the state. For more information,
please contact Jamie Munson at jmunson@cdsys.com or
860.854.6125 |
| New Report: RI Windspeed
|
|
The State of Rhode Island has mandated that
new wind zones be used by carriers in Rhode Island
to determine coastal eligibility. Within the
highest risk zones, insurers must offer coverage
as long as the insured has certain mitigation
measures in place. Carriers who write
homeowners insurance in RI can use these maps in
conjunction with their homeowner rating
territories, to determine coastal
eligibility. For more information on this
report, contact Dan Munson at dmunson@cdsys.com or
617.737.4444.
|
| RiskMeter Online Batch
Enhancements |
|
|
For brokers and carriers that have
multi-location schedules, the (fairly) new
RiskMeter Online batch service is a
must-have! The RiskMeter Online batch allows
users to run muti-location schedules, without the
need to type in each address individually.
The user can upload a file, and the results are
emailed back in spreadsheet form within
minutes. This service is available 24/7
so you can use it, when time is of the
essence.
CDS has taken your feedback and is
in the process of making some enhancements to the
RiskMeter Online Batch Web site. The first
enhancement, which is now live, allows users to
save the results as an Excel
spreadsheet. The other enhancements coming
soon, will be adding links to individual records
so they can be pulled up in RiskMeter, adding
a new geocoding accuracy column and deleting
some columns that contain internal RiskMeter
data. If there are any other features users
would like us to add, or would like to test drive
this service, please contact your account
executive at
617.737.4444 |
| Top Ten Tornado Prone
Metro Areas |
|
|
CDS has just released its list of the top
ten tornado prone metro areas. This
list is based on the RiskMeter Online's Tornado
Model, which predicts the severity of tornadoes
for any location in the Continental United
States. According to this report, the
following top ten tornado prone metro areas are as
follows:
- Denver, CO*
- Houston, TX
- Miami, FL
- Hollywood, FL
- Tampa, FL
- Lincoln, IL
- Lakeland, FL
- Little Rock, AR
- Cape Coral, FL
- Oklahoma City, OK
*Not downtown but a rural area to the
northeast
Tornado exposure has and will always be a
consistent threat to insurers. According to
the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), in an average year the U.S.
experiences 1,200 tornadoes, which kills 55
Americans, injures 1,500 and causes more than $400
million in damage. For more information,
please contact Daniel Munson at dmunson@cdsys.com or
617.737.4444 |
| How to Manage Your
Tornado Exposure |
|
| So far the 2008 tornado
season has been extremely active. According to the
Insurance Information Institute, the first
quarter of 2008 produced 350 tornadoes,
an increase of 43% from the previous year. The
numbers for Q2 of 2008 have gone up even more with
an estimated 742 tornadoes touching
down, which is up 36% during the same
period last year.
Tornado losses have and will always be a
source of concern for property & casualty
insurers. In a recently released A.M. Best
Study, tornadoes and related events have
accounted for nearly 57% of all
catastrophe losses per year since
1953.
The CDS tornado scores can help you to
identify areas with a high frequency of
tornadoes. However, the only way to avoid
significant tornado losses is to manage the spread
of risk. Any company that writes small,
dense pockets of business is at risk for
significant tornado losses. The best way to
manage this risk is to set limits on it within a
given radius. For example, no more than $5m
of A coverage within 3 miles, or no more than $10m
TIV within 5 miles.
CDS can help with this. The RiskMeter
aggregates module can allow you to manage your
aggregates in real-time. Using your exposure
data, this tool can perform policy value
aggregations on the fly. We can also
identify policies near terror targets, or allow
you define specific regions for
accumulations. For more information or
demonstration, please contact an account executive
at
617.737.4444 |
| Hail & Tornado
Study |
|
Based on our updated Hail & Tornado
models, CDS has put together reports that
include some very interesting statistics on the
frequency and geography of hail and tornado
events. To receive a free copy, please
contact Daniel Munson at dmunson@cdsys.com or
617.737.4444 |
| Using Flood Elevation to
Assess Flood Risk |
|
|
As we all know, portions of the MidWest were
rocked by devastating floods recently. Our prayers
go out to the victims. According to FEMA the
most common natural
disaster is flooding and
every state is susceptible. This problem
will only get worse due to new land development
and changes in weather patterns and
topology. Roughly 25% of all claims
paid by the national flood insurance program were
in areas outside of the 100 year flood
plain.
Carl Hedde, Head of Risk Accumulation, Munich
RE recently estimated that U.S
flood losses for the first half of 2008 are up to
one billion dollars! Although
writing flood insurance is becoming more and more
challenging, the RiskMeter Online does offer a
tool, which can help users to gain a better
understanding of flood risk.
RiskMeter's Flood Elevation report combines
flood and elevation data to provide users with
additional insight into flood risk for polices
that fall outside of a flood
zone. By simply typing in an
address, this report will return crucial
information, such as:
- Distance to Flood Zone
- Estimated Base Flood Elevation
- Elevation of the location
- Estimated Height Above a Flood Zone
- Estimated Water Depth in a
Flood Zone
By providing the distance to the closest flood
zone, as well as an estimate of the height above a
flood zone, we are alerting users to hazardous
situations, when nearby a flood zone, but outside
of the 100 year flood plain. This enhanced
data can help organizations to gain a better
understanding of flood hazards and provide agents
with a way to educate prospects and clients about
their flood risk. It is recommended
that anyone using basic flood determinations or
writing excess flood business use this report to
gain a competitive edge. For more information or
to test drive this report, please
speak with an account executive at
617.737.4444 |
| Customize Your Report
Parameters |
|
Did you know
the RiskMeter Online and its reports can be
set to your parameters? This can be
done with no programming on your end and at
no cost to you. Below is a
partial list of some of our customization
options.
- Set default zoom level of maps
- Add your coastal definitions (inlets,
rivers, etc)
- For distance to coast reports, we can change
the distance increments, and maximum distance
returned
- Return only distance to high for
wildfire (among other parameters)
- Add custom rating territories
- Return custom messages on reports
(Yes, No, In, Out, Aggregate Limit Exceeded,
etc)
- Set individual member id's to have
different functionality
- Add custom data layers
- And Much More!
For more information, please call your
account executive
at 617.737.4444 |
| New South Carolina
Windspeed Report |
|
For carriers writing in South Carolina,
insurance department regulations identify certain
wind-related factors that must be considered in
developing rating plans. This new report
from RiskMeter will identify the Windspeed
designations as provided by the South Carolina
Building Codes Council. In compliance with
Section 6-9-105(C) of the South Carolina Code of
Laws, the Building Codes Council has defined the
physical boundaries (streets, highways, streams,
rivers and lakes) associated with the
corresponding maps published in the International
Building and Residential Codes for the State of
South Carolina. This report will identify
the windspeed region for any address in the state
so that appropriate rates may be considered (e.g.
deductibles, storm shutters, roof shape,
etc). This appears to be the first step for
South Carolina as they try and take
similar measures which Florida has passed
over the last few years. If you have any
questions, please contact Jamie Munson at jmunson@cdsys.com or
860.854.6125 |
| Upcoming Events - Meet the
CDS Team! |
|
| 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 Daniel Munson (dmunson@cdsys.com) or Bradley
Sherwin (bsherwin@cdsys.com) at
617.737.4444
September 4-6, 2008 * Whistler, British
Columbia
September 10-13, 2008 * San Diego, CA
October 4-8, 2008 * Las Vegas, NV
October 13-15, 2008 * Tempe,
AZ |
| Online Training
Schedule |
|
In order to help you utilize the RiskMeter
Online more effectively, we are now offering
complimentary training to all RiskMeter Online
customers. This is a great way for your
organization to have its most pressing questions
answered, learn about various risk reports and
discover how to utilize cutting-edge features,
such as: Birdseye Geocoding,
One Click Ruler and
Manual Placement. To
register for an upcoming Webcast, click on one of
the links below or for more information, please
contact Val Feeney at
617.737.4444 or vfeeney@cdsys.com
Western Risks
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EDT)
National Risks
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EDT)
Western Risks
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EDT)
National Risks
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EDT)
Western Risks
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EDT)
|
| Welcome to Our Newest
Customers |
|
|
Carriers
- Crum & Forester Insurance Company
- United States Fire Insurance Company
MGAs/Wholesale
Brokers
- Burns & Wilcox (San Francisco, CA)
- Edgewood Partners Insurance Center
- Genesee Special Risk
- Natural Disaster Protection - Wells Fargo
Insurance Services Mountain West
Agents
& Brokers
- Allstate (Eric Ferguson)
- Beacon Insurance Services, Inc.
- Keck Insurance
- Kim Ellis Insurance Services, Inc.
- Mason & Mason Insurance Agency
- Rumlin Agency
- Sell & Amoy
- Shirley Armer
- Walker Insurance
- Your Good Insurance
Other
- Site Inspections, LLC
- Weybright
Consulting
|
| Request a Hardcopy of the
Newsletter |
|
Having a hard time managing your inbox?
You can now receive the RiskMeter Newsletter via
regular mail. Just send an Email to Paul
Ptashnick at pptashnick@cdsys.com and a
hardcopy will be sent to
you. |
| Contacts |
|
|
Daniel Munson, Founder and VP of Sales &
Marketing
Tel: 617.737.4444
Jamie Munson, Director of Consulting
Services
Tel: 860.854.6125
Bradley Sherwin, Sales Manager
Tel: 617.737.4444
Val Feeney, Support, Training and Customer
Service
Tel: 617.737.4444
David Poitras, Account Executive
Tel: 617.737.4444
Monique Audette, Account Executive
Tel: 617.737.4444
Wendy Corr, Account Manager
Tel: 617.737.4444
|
| Questions or
Comments? |
|
If you would like more information on any of
the topics discussed in this newsletter, please
contact Daniel Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online
at 617.737.4444 or dmunson@cdsys.com |
| Please Add Us to
Your Safe Senders List
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- On the Outlook tools menu, located
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- Click the "Safe Senders" or "Safe
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| Test Drive Any Risk Report
for One Month |
|
|
Are you a current RiskMeter customer and
you're not sure whether to add a new report to
your account, or would like to test one out?
If so, please don't hesitate to ask your account
executive for a complimentary, one month test
drive. For more information about this
program, please
call 617.737.4444
| |
|
The RiskMeter Online is committed to
providing our users with a competitive edge.
We hope this newsletter was informative
and useful to you. Please forward this
newsletter to a friend or colleague who might
benefit from it. We only ask that you send
the entire newsletter.
Thanks,
Paul Ptashnick
Director of Marketing, CDS Business Mapping
Tel: 617.737.4444
| | |
