Rise of the Frequency Perils
There's no denying the frequency (aka secondary) perils have taken front and center stage when it comes to weather-related disasters and insurer claims.
Over the last two years, insurers have been dealing with the most disrupted property reinsurance market since 1992. As was the case in ...
Why the LA Wildfires Should Not Have Been a Surprise Loss
The January 2025 LA Wildfires caused unprecedented losses, but those losses should have been anticipated by insurers. The purpose of catastrophe models is to prepare insurers for losses that haven't ...
Hard Reinsurance Market Fuels Innovation in Risk Transfer
Hurricanes and COVID-19
The 2020 hurricane season will be an active one according to all the major forecasters. Colorado State University said there is a 69 percent chance of a major U.S. landfalling hurricane. The tally ...
Managing a Pandemic: Are There Lessons From Catastrophe Modeling?
COVID-19 isn't the first and won't be the last pandemic to threaten the well-being of the global population, but it will likely turn out to be the worst in the last 100 years. It would be hard to ...
How Insurers and Reinsurers Can Proactively Manage Weather-Related Claims
Insurers handle and pay out millions of weather-related claims each year on homes, businesses, and automobiles. The bulk of these claims result from wind and hail damage caused by severe convective ...
Building Smarter Cat Models: Why They Need an Upgrade
Not too long ago, a phone was just a phone. Along with a phone, you needed an alarm clock, a calculator, a CD player, a camera and many other electronic devices. Today, all of those capabilities and ...
What Harvey and Irma Say About the Accuracy of Catastrophe Models
Four hours after Hurricane Andrew made landfall near Homestead, Fla. in 1992, catastrophe modeler AIR issued a statement that the insured losses could exceed $13 billion in Florida. Actual losses ...
Innovation in Risk Modeling: How to Build a Plane While Flying It
When my partner, Vivek Basrur, and I started Karen Clark & Co. (KCC), we had no intention of building catastrophe models again. In fact, that's the one thing we said we wouldn't do. But after a ...
How New Rating Agency Formulas Could Impact Reinsurance and the ILS Market
U.S. hurricane is the peril most likely to cause the largest insured catastrophe losses and therefore financial impairment for insurance companies that are not adequately prepared. To date, rating ...