Karen Clark & Company Releases Version 4.4 of RiskInsight Open Loss Modeling Platform

Boston, MA – November 7, 2016

Karen Clark & Company (KCC) today announced the release of RiskInsight^® Version 4.4 (RI4.4). The update includes enhancements to the custom model building capabilities and client integration modules, and performance optimization.

RiskInsight Version 4.4 advances the state of practice for building high resolution custom catastrophe models with a completely transparent and modular design. RI4.4 makes it easier to import custom events and event intensity files and to visualize and verify the hazard data. RI4.4 also provides "plugins" for creating damage functions based on attributes that are not typically utilized in the traditional models.

"Significant investment has gone into making RiskInsight a highly advanced model building platform," said Dr. Nozar Kishi, KCC Vice President, Model Development. "In other modeling companies, the client software applications are separate from the model development activities so a lot of time is spent getting the peril models onto the software platforms. KCC's leading scientists and engineers can build the model components directly on the RiskInsight platform, making the process highly efficient, and perhaps more important, the powerful visualization tools enable detailed model verification and validation at every step in the process."

The new model building capabilities make it easier to "mix and match" model components. For example, RI4.4 allows users to more efficiently customize the hurricane model damage functions and to use these customized functions with the Reference Model event catalog. Custom models can also now run through the job manager so performance is on par with KCC Reference Models.

"An important part of our relationship with clients is helping them leverage their own expertise and proprietary data," said Glen Daraskevich, KCC Senior Vice President. "As insurers conduct sophisticated analyses of their data and test variables not considered by the traditional models, RiskInsight enables them to utilize the results of these analyses to improve their catastrophe loss estimates."

Hurricanes Hermine and Matthew demonstrated the live event capabilities of RiskInsight and how insurers can leverage these unique features to obtain reliable real time loss information. Forecast track information is updated every three hours, and in the 4.4 update, the live event tracking capabilities have been further enhanced.

"As a leading insurer in Florida, we find RiskInsight extremely valuable, particularly in helping us project the expected loss as a storm progresses," said Werner Kruck, Chief Operating Officer, Security First Insurance Company. "Other models do not have RiskInsight's frequent updates, and more critically, do not project the expected number of claims. When an event is in progress, the number of claims is our largest operational issue, and RiskInsight's projection of claims by wind speed band is especially helpful."

"Our clients have been looking forward to the new integration capabilities," said Christopher Mossey, KCC Vice President, Client Development. "The KCC model output can directly feed into client internal pricing and portfolio management systems, and perhaps more uniquely, the processed data can be returned to RiskInsight for further analysis and visualization. For example, reinsurers can see aggregated Characteristic Event profiles and market shares for their treaties and ceding companies."

"The highly skilled KCC development team has successfully released software updates with significant new features and enhancements every six months," said Karen Clark, KCC Co-founder and CEO. "Our clients appreciate that we deliver according to schedule so they can test and build on the new capabilities as they are available. The release of RI4.4 lays the foundation for providing our clients with global coverage over the next 18 months, and we're looking forward to releasing our international models starting early next year."