Willis launches suite of analytics to help firms manage risks

Willis Group Holdings plc, the global risk advisor, insurance and reinsurance broker, unveiled on Tuesday a new suite of proprietary analytical tools to help firms proactively manage risks.

The models, part of the first wave of what Willis is calling its Core Analytics tool suite, will deliver innovative analytical capabilities for diagnosing natural catastrophe risk, cyber risk, directors & officers (D&O) liability risk and casualty-related losses.

“These interactive tools offer best-in-class risk quantification to help firms increase their understanding of risk and support risk management decisions grounded in company-specific data and industry-leading analytical principles,” Willis said in a press release, noting that the Core Analytics tools are integrated into Willis’s standard client deliverables and offered to clients free of charge.

The tools are being launched to coincide with the Risk & Insurance Management Society’s (RIMS) Annual Conference in New Orleans from April 26 to 29.

The following tools are live and will be available for demonstration at the conference:

* Global Peril Diagnostic – Willis describes this tool as the “first in the industry to take a global view of an organization’s property portfolio.” Traditionally, property risk has been evaluated through a siloed approach measuring exposures based on either geography or individual perils, the release said. This model delivers a risk evaluation/scoring platform for the entire portfolio and includes a view of the most vulnerable properties across all major nat cat perils: earthquake, tropical cyclone/hurricane, river flood, tsunami and storm surge.

* Cyber Privacy Model PRISM II – The PRISM II is an evolution of Willis’ original Privacy Risk and Insurance Strategy Model. The tool is a predictive model that quantifies the impact and likelihood of a privacy breach. It also helps an organization determine optimal risk transfer strategies and financing limits.

* Dynamic Casualty Forecast – The analytical tool provides a complete picture of an organization’s potential casualty losses and the resultant impact on a firm’s financials. “The tool provides ground-breaking support by examining the entire range of resultant total cost of risk (TCOR) and company-specific EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) distributions,” the release said. “This allows for an immediate view of the risk-versus-return continuum for each risk transfer program.”

* D&O Quantified – The sophisticated predictive model evaluates a firm’s loss potential related to D&O liability exposures and provides decision support for optimal insurance structures. “Going beyond the standard measure of a firm’s market capitalization and industry segment, this tool incorporates client-specific stock price trends, price volatility, corporate governance and accounting metrics, as well as valuation dynamics to provide predictive insights into claim frequency and severity, achieving a refined evaluation of an organizations’ comprehensive D&O risk,” the statement said.

“Organizations today are facing a rapidly evolving set of risks and risk professionals demand dynamic and innovative tools to diagnose exposures in real time and with analytic exactitude,” said John Merkovsky, Willis’ group head of risk & analytics.

Added Ben Fidlow, global head of core analytics, added that “each of these models brings a differentiating view of risk never before offered in the risk management space. We see this as a big step in the evolution toward analytical engagement that many of our sophisticated clients have been waiting for.”