KatRisk’s probabilistic multi-peril models are propelling this Cat modeler, largely known for their U.S. flood models, to the forefront of the flood modeling space. For more than four years, SpatialKey has worked with KatRisk to help underwriters and risk analysts gain a better understanding of flood risk. Our clients are finding that KatRisk’s overall score and flood depths by return period are helping underwriters understand both fluvial and pluvial flood risk like never before. In this interview, we talk with KatRisk co-founder, Dag Lohmann, who talks about the challenges of modeling U.S. flood risk, FEMA, and what’s next on the horizon for this innovative Cat modeler.

With the rise of InsurTech, the new world of insurance is indeed a playing field—players jockeying for positions, making plays, aligning their teams, and acquiring new ones. Then, there are those who aren’t really sure what position they’re supposed to be playing. For these reasons and more, the sports world is relevant to the present state of InsurTech—it requires a game plan and guts. You can either stay on the bench and watch it unfold, or get in the game and start making plays.

When I first discovered how well the insurance industry collaborates, I was blown away. As an outsider, learning how agents, brokers, carriers, and reinsurers all work together to identify, write, and share risk was both overwhelming and fascinating. I was impressed at how multiple insurers participate in sharing a single risk and how each does so leveraging its unique strategy and specialty. An industry that initially seemed boring to me became artful and fascinating, even noble. I continually reflect on how this level of collaboration and risk sharing makes tremendously ambitious projects—from skyscrapers to city centers—possible. And yet, surprisingly, this industry that is so fundamentally built upon collaboration seems to lag far behind its peers when it comes to technology innovation and collaboration.

At a glance:

• A slew of tornadoes hit the Northeast this season causing massive damage. While insured losses are still being tallied, the twisters spun off from a chain of severe convective storms (SCS) that brought with them straight-line wind, hail, heavy rain, and flooding from Florida to New York.
• Annual insured losses from severe convective storms are expected to approach $25 billion—that’s higher than hurricane and earthquake combined, according to new research from Karen Clark & Company.

Exactly one year ago today, as people were flooding out of their downtown Denver offices and beginning their commutes home, the costliest natural catastrophe in Colorado’s state history began wreaking havoc on the Denver metro area. And, it couldn’t have come at a worse time as hundreds of thousands of people hit the highway only to be pummeled by golf ball and baseball-sized hailstones. 

The event resulted in insured losses exceeding $2.2 billion according to NOAA, backing up claims professionals and auto body shops while causing massive business interruption costs.

Between September 2016 and August 2017, 25,588* terrorism and political violence attacks occurred around the globe. The sheer volume of attacks warrants insurers to think differently about how they assess and manage this evolving risk. SpatialKey is collaborating with IHS Markit, the global authority on political violence and terrorism, to integrate their political violence risk index data into our platform—giving insurers a single system to assess, manage, and select terrorism and political risk.

We caught up with Michael Simms, Executive Director, Country Risk at IHS Markit, to gather more insight on IHS Markit’s data and how insurers can build confidence in their terrorism, country risk, and political risk selection and pricing.

SpatialKey's women discuss how their work is making a difference for insurers, and what it's like to be a woman in tech...

Women are strong in insurance, making up a large percentage of the workforce (from 45-85 percent depending on the profession). Yet despite this strength, women like Inga Beale and Karen Clark comprise only 8 percent of named executive officer positions and 17 percent of board seats. What about women in the tech industry? As an InsurTech company, we thought Women’s History Month would be a good time to take a closer look.