Marrying accelerated insurance claims with address data

Remember that phrase we all used in middle school, “Well if you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?” Well, we couldn’t agree more.

Address data and insurance claims have been partners in an ever-evolving landscape of technology and property for years. Insurance claims rely on geocoding to find the exact location, and property data is used to assess the property's condition and attached amenities before losses. 

Efficiently deploying adjusters and accurately assessing damage is impossible without accurate address data. This is common knowledge for insurers and reinsurers alike, but the link between efficiency and utilizing accurate data isn’t discussed enough. We’re gathered here today to watch the beautiful union of these two ideas, FINALLY.

Smarty® is the proud parent of some major address enrichment tools. Try them out below before we break open the champagne and break down the details. Prelude to the ceremony below:

• Processional: Success stories
  • Hippo improves risk modeling and reinsurance pricing
  • Insurer saved 100+ hours
• Exchanging of vows
• Postlude: Future trends and innovations for the happy couple
  • What’s an address key? (persistent unique identifier)
  • Advancements in technology and data sources
  • Predictions for the future of address verification in the insurance industry

Processional: Success stories

Insurance providers succeeding with address geocoding

Better address data helps insurance carriers fight back against the rise of policy crimes. According to a report by the Insurance Information Institute, advanced analytical technologies, such as predictive modeling and link analysis, utilize address data to detect patterns and anomalies that may indicate fraud. By analyzing the relationships between different addresses, claimants, and incidents, insurers can uncover suspicious activities that might go unnoticed through traditional methods.

Smarty client example: How Hippo uses rooftop geocoding for better risk modeling and reinsurance pricing

Hippo is a property insurance company based in California that works with many home builders in California, Texas, and Florida. These areas are prone to wildfires, hurricanes, and other severe weather events, so predicting future risk for pre-construction homes requires precise location data. That location data is then used to help claims know the condition and location from the start.

As a leading home insurance provider, Hippo constantly strives for better loss ratios. Securing reinsurance for the policies they write and insure is vital to Hippo's strategy. Conscious of catastrophic loss, reinsurance companies require exact property attributes and locations when considering the portfolios they want to reinsure.

They searched for the most accurate geocoding solution and implemented Smarty's US Rooftop Geocoding. Rather than parcel or centroid level accuracy, rooftop geocoding (where the pin is literally on the residence's rooftop) helps Hippo understand exactly where homes will be so they can provide quotes for entire developments before construction begins. Not only does exact geocoding data help Hippo quote new builds, but it also empowers them to secure reinsurance treaties under challenging markets where other traditional geocoding solutions fall short.

Smarty client example: Insurer saved 100+ hours with cloud address verification

The right address verification provider helps insurance companies accelerate claims processes. A large Midwest-based commercial insurance company saved 80-120 IT manhours by migrating from an on-premise legacy system to Smarty’s cloud-based US Address Verification API. Accuracy and CASS certification were also paramount for this insurance company, which utilizes an ever-growing library of risk management tools and state, regional, and national association partnerships. Using Smarty, they now cleanse addresses in batches right before print time and get bulk USPS mailings out efficiently, accurately, and with discounted shipping rates.

The easiest way to accelerate claims processes is by effectively combining insurance operations with precise address data intelligence. The two were destined to join forces for the greater good of accurate address data claims processing everywhere. Let’s have them exchange vows.

Exchanging of vows

Address data enrichment

Smarty’s US Property Data, US Secondary Address Data, and US Georeference Data (our enrichment products) promise to enrich your addresses at ludicrous speeds with details that insurance providers require to do their jobs. It promises that, if used, address enrichment products will augment every entered address in good times and in bad. 

Agents and underwriters will obtain correct information about a property for policy underwriting by utilizing accurate address data enrichment. It promises to take the burden from the insured as it provides that valuable information for them.

The details provided by address data enrichment will be clean, maintaining compliance with data protection regulations to protect insurance and reinsurance companies from significant financial and legal repercussions for as long as they both shall live.

Insurance and reinsurance companies

We promise to use address enrichment data to improve processing claims speed and accuracy.

Ok. Ok. So, these vows may feel a little one-sided, but here’s where address enrichment really shines. Most insurance companies already use property data from other sources for risk assessments and CAT modeling. We encourage businesses to make the most accurate, friendliest, and most hilarious address enrichment provider the first choice for the top of the cascade, resulting in a significantly diminished dependency on downline cascades. (Let’s face it. Nobody needs a side chick.) 

Postlude: Future trends and innovations for the happy couple 

Choosing the most reliable and speediest address source to be your 1st (and hopefully only) data processor reduces the need to pay other data providers down the line. Be confident knowing the information was right the first time and spend less money upfront and less time processing these claims. 

Looking forward to this coupling's future, things look exceptionally bright and cheery. Get excited for the dance party and raise a glass to celebrate because it only gets better from here. Smarty’s US Secondary Address Data includes the address key, SmartyKey® (a persistence unique identifier), which opens up a slew of additional ways to accelerate insurance claims processing.

What’s an address key? (persistent unique identifiers)

An Address Key is a persistent, unique identifier for every singular physical deliverable street address. For example, a home with a downstairs apartment would have two singular physical deliverable street addresses, one for the main house and one for the basement. A unique address key will remain with each delivery point forever, regardless of how often the address changes over time.

Using a persistent unique identifier like SmartyKey® ensures consistent data across all the places data lives.

Why does enriched address data need SmartyKey?

• Smarty's SmartyKey is a persistent, unique, 10-digit address key that never changes and remains with a location forever, regardless of address evolutions.
• SmartyKey metadata identifies all alias addresses. 
  • The most correct version of the address is indicated and shares the same SmartyKey with all aliases for simple deduplication and data blending.
• SmartyKeys are applied to secondary addresses, such as apartments and suites. 
  • SmartyKey metadata shows the relationship between primary and secondary addresses and the number of secondary addresses associated with every primary address. Metadata also indicates whether a location is residential or commercial.
• The address metadata underlying a SmartyKey is automatically updated monthly to capture all address changes and ensure address data is always accurate.

Insurance providers benefit immensely from address keys because they help solve many data management problems, such as data updates, duplicates, data blending, processing time, and personally identifiable information. 

Predictions for the future of address intelligence in the insurance industry

Today’s insurance carriers are all about data and technology, and that focus is only growing.

In 2019, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud and the SAS Institute published a report on the State of Insurance Fraud Technology. The report showed that limited IT resources were the top challenge for companies, followed by problems in data integration.

However, about 40% of those surveyed said their technology budgets would increase due to implementing predictive modeling or social network analysis, the two most likely types of programs considered for investment. More and more insurance companies are looking to optimize and automate claims processing to maximize their budgets. 

Finding the right address data provider that’s quick to implement, validates addresses accurately, and puts them at the top of the cascade can resolve many tech and data challenges facing insurance carriers.

Conclusion

Risk management is essential for ensuring insurance companies' success and sustainability. Agencies can easily and quickly identify, analyze, and manage risks by incorporating comprehensive and accurate address data at the start of the insurance claims process. With an address intelligence provider like Smarty, the data is clean, standardized, detailed, and delivered quickly.

Smarty’s US Secondary Address Data enhances underwriting accuracy and risk assessment by providing validated and verified addresses with all the secondary data included (suite, unit, floor, apartment number, etc). Effectively identify high-risk areas and patterns of fraudulent behavior, streamline claims processing, reduce losses, and improve customers’ experiences and satisfaction. Insurance companies should get married to the idea that enhancing their top-tier address data in the cascade will only benefit their customers for as long as they both shall live.