According to the Insurance Information Institute, the 2005 hurricane season was the busiest since record keeping began in 1851. There were 27 named storms, fifteen of which were hurricanes. The total catastrophe losses for the year were $56.8 billion.

Within the last twenty months, seven out of the ten costliest hurricanes have occurred! Many experts are predicting that the 2006 hurricane season will be just as bad as 2005.

Before hurricane losses start to mount in 2006, now is the time to take advantage of the RiskMeter Online. This cutting edge service can help insurance professionals get a better picture of their risk exposure with reports, such as: Distance to Coast, Flood, State Windpool Eligibility and FL Windspeed Mitigation Credit Program. In addition, we can take a book(s) of business and run it through our software in batch or have our reports customized to meet certain underwriting criteria.

For more information, please contact Daniel Munson at 617.737.4444 or dmunson@cdsys.com

For companies that have been looking for an alternative to their current replacement cost vendor, CDS may have a solution.CDS has partnered with e2Value to offer leading edge valuation products. e2Value offers replacement cost estimators for homes, mobile homes, farm, ranch and commercial properties. With more and more insurance companies focusing on improving underwriting results, we wanted to offer a solution that would help our users' to streamline their underwriting processes. Benefits of this partnership include:

Renewal time is quickly approaching and many carriers are concerned about their reinsurance costs. In the past, carriers were under the impression that catastrophe models assumed a worst- case scenario when estimating losses, if building information (i.e. roof type, construction, number of floors, etc) was incomplete. However, it has recently come to light that modelers assumed a middle of the road approach, which led to lower loss estimates. This was one of the reasons given by modelers for grossly underestimating losses during the devastating hurricane season of 2005.

Due to these shortfalls, many carriers expect modelers to assume worst-case scenarios, if building data is missing from now on. This means if carriers don’t provide data on construction, roof type, number of stories, etc., catastrophe models will assume worst case scenarios, which will result in higher loss estimates. This in turn will result in higher reinsurance costs.

In order to reduce reinsurance costs, it's in carriers' best interests to collect as much of this data as possible. If carriers can provide building characteristic information, they can improve loss estimates for individual properties. For carriers who don’t collect this information, CDS may be able to help, by appending this information to policy records and helping to reduce reinsurance costs.

How Does it Work?

For existing buildings, CDS can run an entire book of business through our software in batch and append this information to existing policies. For new policies, this information can be accessed just like any other RiskMeter Online report. Due to the difficulty in obtaining this information, not all records will match. However, it still will benefit a carrier. Why? Because each record that carriers can provide this information for will potentially result in a better loss estimate.

If anyone is interested in learning more about this report, please contact Daniel Munson at 617.737.4444 or dmunson@cdsys.com

CDS has just added ME, NH and VT to its slope/aspect/elevation report. This cutting-edge report will not only return the slope, aspect and elevation for a location, but it will also give the minimum, maximum and average slope and elevation within a radius of 250’. Currently, this report is available in 13 states, but DC, DE, IN, KY, MD, OH, PA, TN, VA and WV will be added in the next few weeks. We will continue to add more states until we meet our goal of nationwide coverage. If anyone wants us to add a particular state first, please contact an account executive at 617.737.4444.

CDS has just added Kentucky to its Distance to Fire Station report. This brings the total number of states to 37! Within the next few weeks Arkansas and Oklahoma will be added as well.

The distance between a property and the primary fire station directly affects your loss ratio. Regardless of the training, personnel or equipment at a station, if an insured location is greater than 5 miles from a station the chance of a large loss is inevitable. By simply typing in an address, you will get: driving distance to local responding fire stations, names of the stations and staffing (career or volunteer).

We will continue to add more states until we meet our goal of providing nationwide coverage. We want your feedback to see which states we should add next. If there is a state you would like to see us add, please contact Jamie Munson at 860.854.6125 or jmunson@cdsys.com. In addition, we also have responding fire district boundaries for the following states: CA, FL, HI, IL, KS, MS, ND and VA.

Insurance Journal – Feb 3, 2006

Dry conditions this year and heavy moisture last year could combine to make Arizona's imminent wildfire season the most devastating yet, experts told Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano at a roundtable discussion.

While Arizona wildfires have either struck in the high or low country in past years, wildland fire experts expect them to occur in both climates this year.

"It could be the worst of last year with the worst of previous years combined," said state forester Kirk Rowdabaugh. "We've never had a situation where it's bad in the low elevations and bad in the high elevations ... We've got the worst of both worlds."

To receive a copy of this article, please contact Paul Ptashnick at 617.737.4444 or pptashnick@cdsys.com

How can the RiskMeter Online Help?

With the wildfire season quickly approaching, now is the time to use the RiskMeter Online’s wildfire report. This report will benefit both carriers and agents by providing cost-effective ways to minimize risk, maximize profits and write new business. Check out some of our cutting-edge features below, which are already being utilized by various carriers and agents!

Batch Processing – Run an entire book of business or a subset through the RiskMeter Online in batch. This process enables carriers to get a clear picture of their risk exposure, and it allows them to make accurate underwriting decisions and pricing adjustments!

Customized Distances – More and more carriers won’t accept policies if they fall within a certain distance from brush. Since the RiskMeter Online can be customized, we can alert underwriters and agents that a policy won’t be accepted because it falls within 300ft, 500ft, 1,000ft, etc., from brush.

Moratorium Areas – The RiskMeter now has a moratorium report that can be used as needed to alert employees and agents that an area has been closed for writing new business. All users need to do is tell us what zips, counties or areas are closed for writing new business, and we will load it on our end.

For more information, please contact Daniel Munson at 617.737.4444 or dmunson@cdsys.com

CDS will be 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! Feel free to stop by our booth or if you wish to schedule an appointment, please contact Dan Munson at 617.737.4444 (dmunson@cdsys.com) or Bradley Sherwin at 617.737.4444 (bsherwin@cdsys.com)

PCI Joint Marketing & Underwriting Seminar
March 26 - 28, 2006 *Las Vegas, NV

AAMGA UFO Annual Meeting
March 27-29, 2006 *London, England

AAMGA Annual Meeting
May 7 - 11, 2006 *Maui, HI

San Diego I Day
May 16, 2006 *San Diego, CA

IASA Annual Conference and Business Show
June 4 - 7, 2006 *Boston, MA

PIA NY/NJ
June 11-13, 2006 *Atlantic City, NJ

TX Indepentent Insurance Agents
June 15-16, 2006 *Houston, TX

FAIA Convention & Expo
June 15 - 17, 2006 *Orlando, FL

AAMGA UFO Annual Conference
Sept 6-9, 2006 *Lake Tahoe, NV

AAMGA Annual Meeting
Spet 13-16, 2006 *Chicago, IL

American Agents Alliance Conference
September 28 - October 2, 2006 *Indian Wells, CA

In order to help you utilize the RiskMeter Online more effectively, we are now offering FREE Online training. This is a great way for your organization to have its most pressing questions answered, learn about reading various risk reports and 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, contact Charles Kane at 617.737.4444 or ckane@cdsys.com

National
Wednesday, March 22nd
2:00 pm- 3:00 pm (EDT)
https://cdsys.webex.com

National
Wednesday, April 5th
2:00 pm- 3:00 pm (EDT)
https://cdsys.webex.com

Western
Thursday, April 20th
2:00 pm- 3:00 pm (EDT)
https://cdsys.webex.com

Would you like the opportunity to evaluate any one of our risk reports without obligation? You can now! For a limited time you will be able to test-drive any RiskMeter Online report for FREE! Take advantage of this exceptional opportunity to see how a particular risk report can benefit your organization. To add a FREE, one-month risk report to your account, please call 617.737.4444.

Carriers

• Berkley Technology Systems
• Commerce Group
• Merced Mutual

• Cabrillo General Insurance Agency
• First Premium Group

• John D. Williams Insurance
• Johnson, Kendall and Johnson, Inc.
• ShoeMaker Insurance

Having a hard time managing your inbox? You can now receive the RiskMeter eNewsletter via regular mail. To get the latest issue of the RiskMeter newsletter delivered to your office (when it becomes available), please email Paul Ptashnick at: pptashnick@cdsys.com

Dan Munson, VP of Marketing & Sales
Tel: 617.737.4444
Email: dmunson@cdsys.com

Jamie Munson, Director of Consulting Services
Tel: 860.854.6125
Email: jmunson@cdsys.com

Bradley Sherwin, Account Executive
Tel: 617.737.4444
Email: bsherwin@cdsys.com

Dave Poitras, Account Executive
Tel: 617.737.4444
Email: dpoitras@cdsys.com

Charles Kane, Training
Tel: 617.737.4444
Email: ckane@cdsys.com

If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this newsletter, please contact Dan Munson, VP of Marketing & Sales at: 617.737.4444 or dmunson@cdsys.com

Please forward this free newsletter to a friend or colleague who might benefit from it. We only ask that you send the entire newsletter. Thanks!

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