Munich Re has announced two new risk analysis and claims settlement services for wildfire and hurricanes, which aim to accelerate indemnification for policyholders.
The reinsurer’s Wildfire Risk Score will support clients in evaluating wildfire risks in North America and in estimating damages following an event.
The solution combines loss data from past wildfires with information from publicly accessible scientific sources, allowing Munich Re to produce high-resolution risk maps that have been integrated into its existing risk assessment platform.
Munich Re believes the application will help insurance companies to analyse risks more precisely and to identify possible accumulations in their portfolio at an early stage by allowing clients to visualise their exposure in real time.
With the links to external warning systems, losses can be estimated and claims settlements addressed quickly during and after a wildfire, reducing costly and enabling policyholders to be indemnified more efficiently.
Risk maps currently exist for California, Colorado and Arizona in the US, and for Alberta and British Columbia in Canada, with maps for Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and Portugal in progress.
The second new Munich Re application, called Remote Industries, permits automated recording of damage following a hurricane.
Potential damage to buildings can be roughly estimated up to two days prior to an expected hurricane, while aerial photographs of the affected regions can be made available immediately after a hurricane, allowing for much quicker estimates of damage.
This is expected to significantly reduce the time spent on claims handling, and can allow loss adjustors to be deployed more effectively.
“We are where our clients and their customers are,” said Torsten Jeworrek, Member of Munich Re’s Board of Management.
“Digital technologies enable us not only to continuously improve our products, but also to develop completely new solutions that meet clients’ need ever more precisely,” he continued. “In this way, we help ensure that insurance will continue to be a stabilising factor for people and businesses in the future.”
