GlobeNewswire Inc | Aug 25, 2020 01:23PM EDT

August 25, 2020

Lansing, MI and Jersey City, NJ, Aug. 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK), a leading data analytics provider, and Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan (Farm Bureau Insurance), announced today that Farm Bureau Insurance will adopt Verisks LOCATION platform to maximize its use of Public Protection Classification (PPC) for precise, address-level measurement of the strength of fire protection for insured properties.

Farm Bureau Insurance will use LOCATION, which can deliver address-level information on a variety of risks, to drive PPCs fire protection grading deeper into its underwriting workflow. The PPC program provides grades to communities across the United States based on their fire prevention and suppression systems.

In conjunction with our digital transformation initiative to streamline our underwriting operations, we analyzed how we could move beyond manual entry of fire protection data at point of sale to capture this critical risk factor with greater precision, said Dawn Elzinga, Vice President of Underwriting and Actuarial at Farm Bureau Insurance. Its an opportunity to achieve more accurate pricing for our customers and stronger underwriting performance throughout our property portfolio. We turned to Verisk to deliver this data.

Granular information applied to underwriting and rating decisions can materially affect loss experienceand, ultimately, profitability. A propertys PPC code is based on a thorough grading of a communitys firefighting capabilities and mitigation effortsand the location of that property relative to responding fire stations and adequate water resources.

This unique proprietary measurement has been and continues to be the industry gold standard for measuring this type of risk, said Doug Caccese, president of ISO Personal Lines. When we looked at modeled versus actual experience, our analysis found PPC to be nine times more powerful at predicting future fire loss than distance to nearest fire station alone. With LOCATION, we can help companies of all sizes enhance their usage of PPC as part of their journey toward increasing digitization.

PPCs level of granularity reflects Verisks continual monitoring of robust data sources and use of digitized files and state-of-the-art geographic information system (GIS) technologyall backed by decades-long, community-level relationships with the fire service and local authorities. And with delivery via application programming interface (API), implementation is flexible.

About Verisk Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK) is a leading data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services. Using advanced technologies to collect and analyze billions of records, Verisk draws on unique data assets and deep domain expertise to provide first-to-market innovations that are integrated into customer workflows. Verisk offers predictive analytics and decision support solutions to customers in rating, underwriting, claims, catastrophe and weather risk, global risk analytics, natural resources intelligence, economic forecasting, and many other fields. Around the world, Verisk helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets.

Headquartered in Jersey City, N.J., Verisk operates in 30 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's S&P 500 Index and part of the Nasdaq 100 Index. For more information, please visit www.verisk.com.

About Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan

Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan was founded in 1949 by Michigan farmers who wanted an insurance company that worked as hard as they did. Those values still guide the company today and are a big reason why we are known as Michigans Insurance Company, dedicated to protecting the farms, families, and businesses of this great state. Farm Bureau Insurance agents across Michigan provide a full range of insurance serviceslife, home, auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate, and moreprotecting Michigan residents with more than 660,000 insurance policies statewide. For more information about Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan: FarmBureauInsurance.co.

Contact: Joseph Madden201-232-4486 Joseph.Madden@verisk.com

Brett Garrison Edelman (for Verisk) 212-639-4903Brett.Garrison@edelman.com