Advanced Flood Risk Solutions

Flooding

The most pervasive and destructive of all natural perils is also one of the least understood from an insurance standpoint. In today’s environment, flooding represents a largely untapped market opportunity—as well as an often-overlooked source of potential exposure. The key to addressing these issues is the ability to accurately identify and measure flood risk.

Insurance enterprises now have that ability. First American introduces Advanced Flood Risk Solutions, the most complete and sophisticated suite of products available to quantify and manage flood exposure. Built specifically for the insurance industry, this product suite comprises five distinct types of products:

When used together, these products enhance core risk management functions including pre-bind risk identification, underwriting, portfolio management, risk transfer and claims management. Whether you are a broker offering your clients a distinct set of value-added services, a commercial carrier determining exposure to natural hazards, or a reinsurer optimizing your capacity, First American's Advanced Flood Risk Solutions can work for you.

Geospatial Analysis

Accurate spatial analysis is the cornerstone of any natural hazard management solution and especially critical to effective flood risk management. Due to the localized nature of flooding, inaccurately geocoding a property can result in an elevation variance of only a few feet – enough to dramatically impact an assessment of flood risk. Consequently, traditional geocoding techniques based on ZIP codes and street maps result in error levels that are unacceptable for determining flood risk.

To deliver a new level of geospatial accuracy, First American utilizes the nation’s largest parcel-level database. This precise, highly granular location data forms the basis for all of our risk assessment products.

Basic Flood Zone Determinations

Effective underwriting is predicated upon a simple idea: obtain the most accurate data available, as fast as possible, at a reasonable price. First American leads the industry in automated property hit rate, determination accuracy, and product innovation. Our Basic Flood Zone Determinations provide accuracy, timeliness and value.

Learn more about the Basic Flood Zone Determinations

Flood Risk Scoring

Underwriting guidelines have traditionally relied on whether a property is “in” or “out” of a federally designated flood zone, yet historically between 25-30% of flood insurance claims come from properties located outside of the flood zones.

Although federal flood maps remain useful in limited situations, underwriting private insurance requires a more advanced and precise risk assessment that identifies high-risk properties outside of designated flood zones, lower risk properties inside the flood zone, and includes additional key risk factors such as the presence of levees and dams. First American’s Flood Risk Score provides this advanced level of risk assessment on both riverine and coastal surge flooding.

Primarily used as an advanced tool to enhance underwriting capabilities, the Flood Risk Score can also be applied to policies and portfolios, offering enhanced aggregate analysis capabilities.

Learn more about the Flood Risk Score 

US River Flood and Storm Surge Model

Catastrophe modeling differs from risk scoring in its approach to risk quantification, technology and application. Catastrophe modeling utilizes a sophisticated mathematical framework to first estimate the probability and severity of a flooding event, the extent of damage resulting from such an event, and finally an insurer’s financial exposure based on the insurance conditions.

The First American US Flood Catastrophe Model (Flood Model) is the first detailed probabilistic portfolio model that fully addresses both riverine and coastal surge risk in the US. The Flood Model represents the state-of-the-art in flood modeling and meets the demand from the insurance industry for a means to financially quantify flood risk in a manner consistent with other natural catastrophe perils. Using a robust stochastic event set, the Flood Model uses advanced techniques and the latest research to simulate the frequency and severity of possible river and coastal surge events to determine loss potential for residential, commercial and industrial facilities.

An integral part of any portfolio management or risk transfer function, the Flood Model is quickly emerging as an underwriting tool as well with capabilities extending to the policy- or location-specific level.

Learn more about the U.S. Flood Catastrophe Model 

For more information on how Advanced Flood Risk Solutions can benefit your business visit call 877.888.7808.