CAPE Analytics, a frontrunner in AI-powered property intelligence, has unveiled an enhanced hail product suite designed to equip property insurers with an all-encompassing toolkit for evaluating and pricing property-level hail risk.
Hail has emerged as a growing peril, with annual insured losses in the United States exceeding $20 billion. In light of this, insurance carriers are increasingly seeking advanced risk assessment tools to mitigate future losses.
CAPE Analytics takes pride in introducing the first comprehensive hail risk product, merging historical claims analysis, recent forensic weather data from Canopy Weather, and current property vulnerability characteristics to empower carriers in making precise determinations of future risk.
Existing methods for assessing hail risk fall short. Many insurers rely on limited information provided by agents or homeowners, such as roof age, covering material, and basic roof shape, to estimate property vulnerability and potential loss severity.
However, this data is often incomplete and inaccurate. Hail, being a complex and localised weather phenomenon, poses further challenges. Large hail may cause obvious damage but is usually confined to specific areas, while smaller hail, although less impactful individually, can accumulate and gradually degrade roofs over time.
Vulnerability to hail varies widely from property to property, with different roof materials and characteristics responding differently to hail strikes, consequently affecting claim severity.
CAPE Hail Intelligence leverages machine learning, imagery analytics, and forensic weather history to provide a comprehensive perspective on hail risk.
The Hail Experience Rating leverages historical weather data from Canopy Weather to estimate recent hail damage likelihood, providing insurers with unique insights for claim assessment and management.
The Hail Vulnerability Rating considers property characteristics like structure footprint, roof condition, and covering material to gauge susceptibility, revealing that properties with high vulnerability in hail-prone areas have significantly elevated hail loss ratios and claims frequency.
The Hail Risk Rating combines vulnerability analysis with forensic weather data, enabling tailored coverage and pricing adjustments.
Lastly, the Hail Loss Severity Rating estimates the potential financial impact of future hail claims based on property characteristics, addressing a common issue where carriers underprice homes with predicted higher loss severity.
Mike McCormick, Product Manager at CAPE Analytics, highlighted the significance of this innovation, stating, “Hail accounts for tens of billions of dollars in insured annual losses in the United States alone and is a complex weather phenomenon and peril to assess. CAPE has combined imagery-based property analytics and granular weather history for the first time into a hail risk assessment toolkit that can be used by insurance carriers to better understand property-specific exposure.”
