Willis Re enhances wildfire risk analysis
Willis Re, the reinsurance division of global advisory and broking company Willis Towers Watson, has deployed a wildfire risk system that can be used throughout the US to assess location level wildfire risk.
The technology also allows companies to analyse how new risk correlates to existing portfolio level wildfire exposures. It will support Willis Re clients by allowing wildfire risk to be priced more accurately.
Recent and devastating wildfires in California revealed that many carriers do not have a good handle on their wildfire risk, largely due to existing industry models which do not accurately represent the hazard, said Willis Re.
In 2016 Willis Re attempted to remedy this problem by initiating the development of a wildfire risk score. Today, Willis Re, in partnership with SpatialKey, a data enrichment and geospatial analytics hub for the property and casualty industry, has enhanced this function, to deliver it to clients at their point of quote.
Vaughn Jensen, executive vice president at Willis Re, said: “The Willis Re wildfire score provides the framework for our clients to achieve meaningful portfolio and underwriting improvements with the least amount of disruption.”
Tom Link, CEO and founder of SpatialKey, said its insight hub brings together expert content from over 20 data providers across multiple perils into a single platform.
“This initiative with Willis Re extends the reach of our underwriting platform and allows Willis Re to quickly, contextually, and flexibly deploy hazard data to their clients at their point of quote,” he added.
