The latest release of ISO HomeValue, a residential replacement cost estimator, now allows personal lines insurers to assess catastrophe risk for individual properties using AIR Worldwide's (AIR) industry-standard catastrophe models. By providing access to catastrophe risk data from a single Web-based application, ISO HomeValue enables improved underwriting decisions.

"After the large hurricane losses of 2004 and 2005, companies were reminded of the importance of assessing a property's catastrophe risk as part of the underwriting process," says George Davis, vice president at AIR. "However, most personal lines insurers historically had limited and inefficient ways to assess the catastrophe risk for individual properties. ISO HomeValue provides residential underwriters with immediate catastrophe risk information at the individual property level in a seamless, efficient, and cost-effective manner."

By accessing AIR's catastrophe models from within ISO HomeValue, underwriters can generate real-time estimates of catastrophe risk as characterized by the estimated average annual loss. Insurers can use this assessment of the catastrophe risk to automate, for example, simple issue/decline decisions, rating plan selection, and price adjustment under consent-to-rate procedures.