Future Reports to Include Both Private, Public Flood Insurance Loss Estimates

Beginning with Hurricane Harvey, the private sector Property Claim Services will publish aggregate flood loss information supplied by the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Historically, NFIP losses have been excluded from PCS’s industry insured loss estimates. With this combined effort, PCS loss estimates promise to provide a fuller view of catastrophe losses across the country.

PCS, owned by Verisk Anaytics, and the NFIP said their agreement is an important step forward for risk and capital management, particularly in light of the NFIP’s decision to secure reinsurance protection.

“We see this as an opportunity to better integrate with the insurance industry,” said Roy E. Wright, FEMA’s director of the NFIP. “This better understanding of flood losses is in the interest of FEMA and our private sector partners. . It can deepen the understanding of flood risk as the industry explores broader use of private lines in this space.”

Tom Johansmeyer, assistant vice president, PCS, said the combined effort is the direct result of requests from its clients.

Ted Gregory, director, PCS, said both insurers and independent adjusters can serve claimants more effectively when they have access to more event-specific data.

For Hurricane Harvey, the NFIP has received more than 87,000 claims and incurred more than $819 million in losses as of September 26. In Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, the NFIP has received 23,000 claims and incurred losses of $15.8 million so far. For these storms and future events, the NFIP will report claim totals and incurred (rather than projected ultimate) losses in accordance with the PCS reporting cycle. PCS will publish NFIP losses only for PCS-designated catastrophe events.

PCS said it is in the process of developing a database for NFIP catastrophe loss data-which will be maintained separately from the existing PCS database for insured losses from catastrophe events for at least 12 months.

Topics Trends Profit Loss Flood