McKenzie Intelligence Services launches US market-first product to accelerate response times for major hailstorm events

Geospatial intelligence leader, McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS), has launched a new peril, Hail, within its award-winning platform, Global Events Observer (GEO), to accelerate incident and claims responses following hailstorm events.

Rosina Smith, Chief Product Officer of MIS, said: “Our response to this peril fills a huge gap in the market. Hailstorms are a major risk in many countries around the world and the most underrated climate risk in the US, where there is an average of $10bn in damage per annum. Its ability to cause sudden and unpredictable damage is outmatched only by tornadoes and wildfires.

“Until now, however, its devastating impact has not been immediately quantifiable. With our new Hail capability, insurers can make better-informed decisions during and after a hailstorm event, with actionable intelligence, so that exposures can be understood, claims can be paid more quickly, and policyholder experience improved.”

The new capability produces reports that record the maximum size of hail and its sustained duration in affected areas and translates them into 1km x 1km grid squares. Depending on whether these results meet certain thresholds, each grid square is then assigned a corresponding MIS damage assessment.

On this basis, MIS can provide clients with accurate and quick damage assessments within 24 hours of a hailstorm event, even down to a property level (where the PIF is held). Insurers can then visualise which properties have been exposed, allowing them to triage, reserve, and assess locations. This enables insurers to quantify their exposure and ensure claims relate to the hailstorm under their coverage, not pre-existing damage.

Further, by knowing the extent to which properties have been damaged, insurers can quickly and proactively send the correct number of adjusters, choose to pay claims without the need for an inspection, or build a hybrid model, thereby speeding up claims and reducing insurers’ costs.

GEO is the complete event response solution for (re)insurers, responders, loss adjusters, and government agencies. It leverages multiple data sources to provide rapid, accurate, and detailed actionable intelligence for all modelled and non-modelled catastrophic events, such as floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes, in near real-time.

Clients receive faster and more accurate quantification of damage to anticipate the first notification of losses (FNOL) and enhance the triaging of claims, enabling them to proactively communicate with customers and provide a better all-around service, including taking CAT team responses from reactive to proactive and putting the insured at the heart of the process.