Utica First Insurance Company Selects Betterview
Jun 2022
Utica First Insurance Company selects Betterview to strengthen underwriting and remote property inspection
Jun 2022
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Since this post was originally published, Betterview was acquired by Nearmap. References to Betterview, the company, or its products have been maintained for historical accuracy. Betterview is now the primary solution for the insurance industry at Nearmap.
Betterview, an InsurTech provider of actionable property intelligence to property and casualty (P&C) insurance companies, is pleased to announce Utica First Insurance Company (Utica First) has selected the company’s market-leading Property Intelligence Platform to improve underwriting efficiency, increase profitability, and reduce loss adjustment expenses (LAE).
Founded in Utica, New York in 1903, today Utica First actively writes homeowners, landlord package, restaurant and tavern program, artisan contractor, and businessowner policies (BOP) business in Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Utica First’s conscious choice to maintain a narrow focus instead of trying to be “everything to everyone,” has enabled faster growth and greater profitability over the years, and the company actively incorporates new technologies and partners in order to maximize operating efficiency, speed-to-market, and fair rates to policyholders.
“We selected Betterview and the Property Intelligence Platform to help our underwriters gain a better understanding of risk on every policy by analyzing insured properties from a high resolution aerial imagery perspective which reveals potential exposures that traditional physical property inspections simply don’t discover” said Shawn Kain, Chief Underwriting Officer at Utica First. “Not only will we write better policies with the data we get through Betterview, but we will also maximize our efficiency and drive down expenses. The ultimate goal is to predict and prevent losses. Betterview represents a major step in achieving that goal.”
Betterview’s Property Intelligence Platform streamlines underwriting workflows, prevents future losses, and helps P&C insurance company clients build a more effective, transparent customer experience. The platform, which includes the integrated PropertyInsight tool, the Roof Spotlight Index, and a recently announced Defensible Space feature, is powered by a combination of cutting-edge technology, including proprietary machine learning (ML) algorithms and a wide selection of public, private, and commercial property data. All of these insights are housed in an intuitive, single-screen platform that gives underwriters a holistic view of real property risk, empowering them to take immediate, decisive action on every covered property.
Betterview co-founder and chief operations officer David Tobias believes the company’s Property Intelligence Platform is an indispensable tool for companies like Utica First. “The modern underwriter is given access to an overwhelming amount of property data, and not all of this information is created equal,” said Tobias. “What the Betterview platform excels at is transforming data into action.”
Sales Director Neil Weiss spoke more about the advantages of the platform. “Underwriters are given total control over which data is inputted –including third-party data from industry-leading providers, such as RedZone, HazardHub, and Canopy Weather. They are then able to flag properties that meet specific requirements, such as those at a high risk of wildfire damage, and create customizable workflows to enable policy action. A full 86% of users report taking direct action after viewing the insights on our platform.”