Homeowners Insurance New Jersey Division

Verisk Analytics Launches Verisk Underwriting Solutions Division

RELATED: Insurers Focus on Underwriting Discipline After 2011's Catastrophes

In order to respond to insurers' needs for better underwriting support, Jersey City, N.J.-based Verisk Analytics formed the Verisk Underwriting Solutions division. The division's mission is to develop the "next-generation underwriting platform and solutions set," according to Verisk.

The Verisk Underwriting Solutions division is headed by division president Neil Spector. Spector was formerly chief sales officer of the Verisk Insurance Solutions unit. "Our goal is to provide a more integrated set of services to address our customers' entire underwriting process," said Spector, in a press release.

The Verisk Underwriting Solutions division encompasses the company's property/casualty underwriting offerings, including: Automobile-Property Loss Underwriting Service (A-PLUSTM), a property and liability claims database designed for insurance underwriters. Coverage VerifierSM, which provides personal auto and homeowners insurers the policy-level information to make risk selection and pricing decisions. Insurance Information Exchange (iiX), the provider of motor vehicle records to insurance professionals and employers. Quality Planning (QPC), which supplies tools and services that help automobile insurers identify rating errors, recover lost premiums, and minimize future losses. 360Value, a replacement-cost estimation system that helps maintain insurance to value through the life of a policy. LOCATION, a risk assessment tool to help insurers identify the proper public protection and hazard information for an individual property. LOCATION Analyst, a spatial risk management system to help insurers analyze underwriting risks at a portfolio level. Property Characteristics Reports, which provide access to public records information on personal properties. ISO PushPin, a database of property-specific building characteristics.

Maryland's 60000 ton Godzilla in the room

Godzilla and coastal hurricane insurance. This is not a combination you would expect to hear in a legal decision, especially one involving something as mundane as wind insurance, but a recent court ruling in Maryland found a way to include both. The case involved Allstate Insurance’s request to stop writing new homeowners policies in areas along Maryland’s coast in 2007.

From the Insurance Journal :

The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled in favor of Allstate last week. It upheld a previous lower court’s ruling that the insurer was within its rights to stop writing new homeowners policies in coastal areas of the state in 2007.

The court said Allstate’s decision was based on the company’s catastrophic storm forecasting models and that it was not discriminatory.

According to court documents, in February 2006, Allstate filed with the Maryland Insurance Administration a new underwriting rule stating that due to “catastrophe management actions,” it would no longer write new homeowners insurance policies on properties lying within one mile of the Atlantic Ocean. That was significantly expanded in December 2006, when Allstate filed a new underwriting rule stating that pending regulatory approval, it would stop writing new homeowners and renters policies in all ZIP Codes located within what it defined as Hurricane Bands 4, 5, and 6, covering one third of the state including most of the Eastern Shore.

While the Maryland Insurance Administration found the decision to stop writing policies along the coast reasonable and non-arbitrary, the Maryland General Assembly’s People’s Insurance Counsel Division filed a challenge, arguing that the decision to stop writing policies along the coast was discriminatory and not based on realistic projections .

In May 2007, Maryland Insurance Administration told Allstate that it had reviewed the filing and that the regulators, based on the information submitted, concluded that the geographic designation had an objective basis and was neither arbitrary nor unreasonable. The new underwriting rule was put into effect in June 2007.

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