LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a leading provider of data and analytics for the insurance industry, today announced that LexisNexis® Rooftop, a risk assessment tool for home insurance carriers, has been approved for rating in a number of states in which wind and hail loss costs have traditionally been high. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and South Dakota have recently been added to the growing list of states that have approved the model. LexisNexis Rooftop has been approved in each of the states where the model has been filed.
LexisNexis Rooftop provides a predictive model to help home insurance carriers segment properties based on roof risk. The score is created by combining aerial imagery insights with weather-related total loss experience, from auto and home insurance claims insights, that assess pre-existing damage and the likelihood of a future wind or hail claim. LexisNexis Rooftop’s aerial imagery insights come from Arturo, an artificial intelligence analytics provider of property insights and predictive analytics.
Home insurance loss ratios have been increasing, with the average loss ratio now more than 89%, according to the latest report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, and the six states that have approved LexisNexis Rooftop represent close to one-fifth (19.2%) of all hail losses nationwide. According to the 2021 LexisNexis Home Trends Report, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana are three of the states with the highest loss cost wind claims between 2015 and 2020, and South Dakota has some of the highest loss costs for hail over that same six-year period.
“Roofs that are in poor condition are more loss prone in both catastrophic and non-catastrophic situations,” said Erin Oswalt, director of home insurance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. As the market continues to see rising levels of severity, frequency, and types of catastrophic losses, home insurers are grappling with how to get ahead of major weather events.”
To help combat this, many home insurance carriers are evaluating their rating plans to determine how they can better manage their expense ratios. The LexisNexis Rooftop model shows up to a 20x lift in loss cost relativity and an 18x lift in claims rate relativity between the highest-risk properties and lowest-risk properties. Together with the accompanying data attributes, LexisNexis Rooftop can act as a tool for home insurers for faster, more cost-effective decision-making.
“As roof loss ratios continue to rise, home insurance carriers are consistently looking for ways to better segment properties as it relates to roof risk,” said Oswalt. “With LexisNexis Rooftop now approved in six states, several of which have some of the highest loss cost wind and hail claims in the country, and additional state regulatory filings underway, home insurers serving these states can better manage their expense ratios and price policies more accurately.”
To help insurers better assess risk, LexisNexis Rooftop:
- Provides a predictive risk score from 1-100 that indicates the likelihood of a large weather claim within the next 12 months.
- Returns a score even if a recent aerial image is not available.
- Delivers up to 80 actionable attributes including recent weather events and related claims insights and dozens of imagery insights from Arturo.
- Is available system-to-system in an automated process through a single point of access where LexisNexis Risk Solutions delivers industry leading data analytics solutions such as C.L.U.E.® Property, LexisNexis® Current Carrier Property, LexisNexis® Property Data Prefill and others.
LexisNexis Rooftop will continue to be filed in additional states, and LexisNexis Risk Solutions has a filing support team available to support direct filings from carriers.
