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In This Issue
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Featured
WebEx: Custom Coastlines
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Featured
WebEx: New Wildfire Underwriting Tool
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Over
5,000 Sinkholes Added to Clearinghouse
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New
Feature: Oblique Imagery
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RiskMeter
Partners with BuildFax
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Hail
& Tornado Top Ten Metro Areas
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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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New
Feature: RMS Modeling
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South
Carolina Beach & Coastal Wind Report Update
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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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Issue: # 9
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September 2011
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Featured WebEx: Custom
Coastlines for MGAs
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MGAs 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 28th 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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Featured WebEx: New
Wildfire Underwriting Tool
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On Thursday
October 27th at 2PM (EDT) Dan Munson, Founder,
RiskMeter Online will unveil our new brush modeling tool. Over
the last few months our GIS analysts and programmers have been
working on this product. We believe this report will help you
evaluate wildfire risk in an entirely new way! We have a
limited number of seats open for this unveiling. To secure your
spot, visit our registration page
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Over 5,000 Sinkholes Added
to Clearinghouse
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CDS is proud to
announce we have just added over 5,000 sinkholes to RiskMeter's
sinkhole clearinghouse. These sinkholes were pulled from
building permit data throughout the state of Florida. For the
past few years RiskMeter has been coordinating a sinkhole clearing
house for carriers. By sharing sinkhole information, we believe it
will enable carriers to have the most accurate picture of sinkhole
activity in FL. We've added thousands of sinkholes not available from
public sources to this database from carriers. Missing just one of
these could lead to a very costly claim! Get involved today!
For people who aren't familiar with this program, here's how it
works. Insurers who submit reported sinkholes will have access to an
exclusive database, which is comprised of our data and other
carriers' data. Taking part in this program is a win-win situation
because it will give users a better picture of their sinkhole risk.
To find out more about this program, contact Jamie Munson at 860.854.6125
or Email
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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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RiskMeter
Partners with BuildFax
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RiskMeter Online is
proud to announce that we have formed a partnership with BuildFax.
BuildFax has a database of building permits, and can mine the data in
innovative ways to retrieve property information that is not readily
available anywhere else.
BuildFax's roof age reports can be used throughout the insurance life
cycle. Below are just a few ways these reports can be leveraged
for a competitive edge.
Florida Wind
Mitigation Re-inspections
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.
Book of
Business - We can take your book of business and
append roof ages to your policies. This information can be used
to follow up with current customers who are underinsured or non-renew
those who are too risky.
Lead
Generation - Reach your target market by mailing only
to prospects that meet your underwriting requirements. This
will allow you to stretch your marketing budget, which is a must in
today's tough economic environment.
Why is Roof Age Important?
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.
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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Top Ten Hail and Tornado Prone Metro Areas
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RiskMeter recently released its top ten hail and
tornado prone metro areas (population 50,000 plus) lists. These top
ten lists are based on RiskMeter's Hail & Tornado models, which
predicts the frequency of tornadoes and hail storms for any location in
the Continental United States. Tornado and hail events cost insurers
billions of dollars in claims each year. To review our top ten lists,
please follow the links below.
Tornado Top Ten
Hail Top Ten
Hail & Tornado Studies
Each year as we add the latest data to our hail and tornado models,
we also update our models' findings. RiskMeter's hail and
tornado studies are designed to help insurers identify patterns and
trends in this data. Our goal is to help insurers understand
what the model results 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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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.
Many carriers have begun to pre-fill this information at the point of
sale. This way, the information is already verified, and you're
also saving the agent time and effort. Through our
web-services you can do this too!
In order to increase our building characteristic information, we've
partnered with a second data provider. We know that 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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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
Email address required). You'll notice on the
bottom of the RMS Modeling input page, we've added a box for users to
submit their Email address. The RMS Modeling takes about a minute to
process. So instead of waiting, by entering your Email address,
RiskMeter will automatically send an Email with a link. 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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South Carolina Beach & Coastal Wind
Report Update
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The South Carolina
Beach & Coastal wind pool areas have been extended until March 29, 2013.
These territories will remain the same until further notice. If
you're not familiar with this report, if a policy falls in a windpool
zone, RiskMeter will return the County and Territory Zone. For
more information or to add this report to your account, please
contact your account executive at 617.737.4444.
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TX Wildfire Report - Is there a need?
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The 2011 Texas Wildfire season has been extremely
active and has caused millions of dollars in losses for Property
& Casualty insurers. We'd like to get your feedback to see
if you would like us to add a TX wildfire report. Currently, the CDS
Wildfire report provides coverage for 13 states including: AZ, CA, CO, FL, ID, MT,
NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA and WY. If
we added TX, we would be able to process new business, as well as run
your existing book in batch. Based on your responses we may add
Texas or any other states where you write business. You
may Email your responses to Dan Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online at Email. In addition, if you write in any of the
states above and are concerned about you wildfire exposure, we can
take your book of business and run it through in batch.
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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
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
Property
Insurance Report
November 13-15, 2011 * Dana Point, CA
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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
National Risks
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Western
Risks
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
National
Risks
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Western
Risks
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
National
Risks
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
These events are open to customers and prospects. To
secure your spot for the events below, register here
Event: Custom Coastlines for MGAs
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 28 at 2pm (EDT)
Event:
New Wildfire Underwriting Tool
Date &
Time: Thursday, October 27 at 2pm (EDT)
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