Insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Towers Watson has entered into an agreement with Roost – innovator in smart home technology – to establish a Home Telematics Consortium with 5-10 U.S. insurance carriers to help connect property insurers to the Internet of Things.
The aim of the consortium is to combine household data to measure how effective home telematics devices are in mitigating insurance fire and water losses, as well as to increase customer engagement.
“Leveraging our experience and success with DriveAbility® in the auto telematics space, we’re eager to apply advanced analytics to reveal insights regarding the effect of home telematics on loss mitigation and customer engagement,” said Claudine Modlin, director, insurance consulting, Willis Towers Watson.
The participating carriers will offer policyholders a Roost smart 9v battery (for smoke alarms) and Roost smart water leak detectors that notify customers of suspected water or fire leakage via their smartphones.
Broker Willis will then analyze the policy and claims data together with Roost’s telematics data, and provide consortium members with their findings to facilitate streamlining and innovation within the property insurance market.
“The consortium offers an exclusive opportunity for carriers to quickly attain statistically meaningful insights in home telematics with a minimized investment,” said Roel Peeters, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Roost.
“Carriers will learn best practices for policyholder outreach and deployment of the smart home devices, which are low-cost, easy to install, leverage existing Wi-Fi technology, and alert homeowners of water or fire activity through our smart phone app,” he continued.
Doug May, senior broker, Willis Re, Willis Towers Watson, added; “We’re excited that our engagement with Roost gives us a new way to help property insurers innovate.”
