AAIS recently signed a license agreement to use
the "Pretium" statistical software platform developed by Watson
Wyatt Worldwide, the global actuarial consulting firm based in
Arlington, Va.
Pretium operates in tandem with SAS statistical
software to provide analytical applications specifically developed
for the needs of insurers. Pretium is currently used by more than
500 insurers throughout the world, about 40 of them in the U.S.
At AAIS, Pretium will be used to help
develop rating plans that rate for individual types of property
perils and liability claims, first in the AAIS Homeowners Program,
then in other lines. To accomplish this, Pretium is being used to
test a series of variables to determine if and how they are
predictive of loss.
"Pretium will allow us to analyze new rating
variables and old rating variables to a degree that couldn't be done
before," says Greg Jaynes, AAIS chief actuary.
More information is available
online.
AAIS recently released sample
policy language insurers can use as the basis of an endorsement excluding
liability arising from a virus or bacteria.
As drafted, the endorsement would exclude coverage
for bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury
arising from a microorganism capable of causing disease. The sample
endorsement includes an exception preserving coverage for product
liability arising from human or animal consumption, or from the
application of a product.
The sample exclusion will be available under all AAIS programs that
include commercial liability coverage, but companies would have to file
the endorsement themselves.
The "Virus or Bacteria"
exclusion for liability coverage is modeled, in part, on exclusions for
first-party property losses arising from viruses or bacteria. Those
exclusions were filed countrywide as optional endorsements under AAIS
farm and commercial lines programs, starting in 2006, and described in a
press
release at the time.
Insurers that access the AAIS
Inland Marine Guide
through the AAISdirect
Internet service now have use of six new automated rating worksheets
for policies based on forms provided in the Guide's
Miscellaneous Floaters section.
Those forms are the Exhibition Floater,
Miscellaneous Bailee Floater, Mobile Equipment Floater, Patterns and
Dies Floater, Sales Representative Floater, and Scheduled Property
Floater.
The new worksheets have been developed using
Microsoft's '.NET' technologies.
Among other things, the latest rating worksheets provide:
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Automatic calculation of loads, charges, and
premium;
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Quote summary prior to printing;
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Ability to save quotes for up to one month;
and
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Free form fields to document risk features
(exposures and controls).
