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Verified wildfire mitigation data can help reinstate nonrenewed clients
An Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety finding suggests ember-resistant buffers in the first five feet can cut ignition risk in half, according to RockRose Risk’s CEO.
Insurance Business reports that some wildfire pricing models can treat mitigated and unmaintained homes similarly because they are set up at the territory level, using geography to estimate hazard rather than assessing whether a specific building is more likely to survive.
RockRose Risk CEO Andrew Engler argues the approach misprices risk in both directions, since territory-level tools do not capture vulnerability drivers such as ember-resistant components, roof quality, cleared fuel near the property, or a community’s fuel reduction work, and he says wildfire risk is decided parcel by parcel.
The outlet cites research from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety indicating that an ember-resistant buffer in the first five feet around a home cuts wildfire ignition risk in half, and Engler says verified mitigation information can therefore change carrier conversations.
According to Engler, brokers that shift from standard submissions to property-level documentation, including photos, measurements, and work mapped to standards like Safer from Wildfires, can replace underwriter uncertainty and help bring nonrenewed clients back into the private market.