Claims Business: Aon and Praedicat, Sedgwick and CSC, Swiss Re and Iceye

Aon Teams Up With Praedicat for Emerging Risks

Aon is collaborating with Praedicat to develop specialty product liability reinsurance products for emerging risks created by new technology, such as nanomaterials and 5G cellular service.

Aon, a Chicago based brokerage and risk management consultant, said Praedicat will help it develop “named peril” products to transfer emergency risk liability to reinsurers and capital markets. The data analytics firm is based in Los Angeles.

Aon said in a press release that the collaboration aims to address reinsurance coverage gaps arising from emerging risks and to encourage the development of a robust casualty catastrophe market that could offer new and diversified exposures to the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities sectors.

“Our collaboration with Praedicat is a step in building an innovative robust liability catastrophe market, which will eventually match what already exists on the property side,” stated Aon Reinsurance Solutions Chief Executive Officer Andy Marcell.

Aon said reinsurance products that address large-scale emerging liability risks have often been seen as too expensive by cedents, while reinsurers are wary about overly broad exposure. By tailoring the coverage to a defined list of emerging risks on a named peril basis, the products are expected to provide the transparency needed to facilitate greater coverage certainty at lower cost. Praedicat’s analytics will provide the modeling to inform the product structuring and underwriting, Aon said.

“The model has the functionality to allocate future losses to historical policy years and project when claims may arise,” stated Jessica Schuler, senior vice president of Praedicat. “This flexibility will allow Aon to carve up the exposure along the time dimension to meet reinsurers’ appetite.”

Sedgwick Acquires Construction Services Co.

Sedgwick has acquired Construction Services Co, a building consulting firm headquartered in Roseville, California.

The transaction extends the reach of Sedgwick’s building consulting practice in the western United States and expands the company’s service offerings, the Memphis, Tenn.-based claims administrator said in a press release. CSC, founded in 1997, has an extensive background in building code compliance, coupled with years of construction experience, Sedgwick said.

Harry Parrish, founder of the company, will join Sedgwick as a vice president.

“This acquisition adds hardworking, experienced and knowledgeable professionals to our team and offers significant advantages to clients,” stated Tom Simoncic, president of Sedgwick’s property Americas division.

Swiss Re Forms Partnership With Iceye

Swiss Re has formed a partnership with Iceye, a company headquartered in Helenski, Finland that uses satellite imagery to model flood risks.

The reinsurer said in a press release that the partnership will advance flood risk management, assist disaster response and speed up claims payments. Using Iceye’s synthetic-aperture radar images of the Earth’s surface, Swiss Re will enhance early warning systems and enable near real-time flood monitoring, Swiss Re said.

While the partnership will initially focus on floods, it is intended to expand to other perils such as wildfires, wind and earthquake damages.

Flooding has been consistently one of the most recurrent and costly natural catastrophes our world suffers, Swiss Re said. Modelling floods has proven particularly challenging in locations with fine-scale changes in elevation, complex terrains and man-made structures as is typical for dense urban areas. The partnership aims to address exactly these areas where most of the flood modeling today falls short and thereby addressing the insurers’ pain points, the company said.