New risk management tool could fill in the gaps left by conventional catastrophe models

Karen Clark & Company, a catastrophe management firm serving the insurance industry, has developed a new tool that could help insurers manage their risks in a changing world of natural disasters. The past two years have been the most catastrophic years in history in terms of insurance. Natural disasters from both 2010 and 2011 have cost the industry billions and have left it staggered. Insurers are hoping that 2012 will not be as disastrous as its predecessors. If it is, however, they will have a new risk management tool at…

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Maryland court sides with Allstate’s decision to not write new policies for coastal properties

Maryland’s highest court has sided with Allstate this week in a case regarding the insurer’s move to stop writing new homeowners policies in coastal regions. The case emerged in 2007 when the insurer chose to step away from the coastal market due to the potential for natural disasters. The insurer’s move was spurred by a catastrophe model that suggested that losses in these regions as a result to hurricanes or other storms could be gargantuan. The Maryland Court of Appeals chose to uphold the rulings of lower courts, agreeing that…

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AIR Worldwide marks 200th anniversary of New Madrid Earthquake with special report

It has been 200 years since the New Madrid Earthquake, a major seismic event that rattled the Central U.S. in the winter of 1811. The quake, which was estimated as being a 7.0, struck what is, today, Missouri. To mark the occasion, AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe modeling firm serving the insurance industry, has released a new report titled “The New Madrid Earthquake Bicentennial: Revisiting A Midwest Mystery.” The report details how much the catastrophe modeling community has changes in the centuries following the disaster and estimates the financial impacts of…

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AIR Worldwide Updates Terrorism Model for the U.S.

NEW ORLEANS – Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) released an update to its terrorism model for the United States. The model, which is used by insurers and reinsurers to assess potential losses to property and workers compensation risks, reflects less frequent and lower-severity attacks based on a reassessment of the threat by a team of leading terrorism experts. “AIR’s team of operational threat analysis experts includes the FBI’s former head of counterterrorism and members of the CIA responsible for developing terrorist group profiling,” said Jack Seaquist, assistant vice…

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