Liberty Mutual’s Solaria Labs Launches Two New Products
Liberty Mutual has announced two new tools aimed at helping homeowners make more informed decisions before buying a home. Both of the tools, were developed and launched by Solaria Labs, Liberty Mutual’s insurtech innovation center.
“Total Home Score is an exciting new analytics product that helps consumers understand ‘hidden’ livability factors before they move in to a new home. The Road Score factor measures the prevalence of aggressive and potentially dangerous driving around a neighborhood, while the Quiet Score factors in estimated noise levels surrounding a home,” says Adam L’Italien, vice president, Global Consumer Markets Innovation, Liberty Mutual Insurance. “At Solaria Labs, our plan is to add additional factors to this product, giving consumers more confidence and complete information to help them navigate the often stressful process of finding the right place to live.”
According to the official release, Total Home Score currently includes “address-specific estimates” for the following:
- Road Score: Built on second-by-second driving data and using Liberty Mutual’s data on daily traffic patterns, Road Score measures areas where aggressive driving (e.g., speeding, hard-braking) are more common.
- Quiet Score: This score estimates the noise levels surrounding a home using data such as road, train and subway networks. Quiet Score is currently being fine-tuned with hundreds of field measurements around Greater Boston.
Total Home Score livability factors range from 0-100, with 100 being the highest score. All livability factors start at 100 and decrease based on local geospatial data around the home.
Along with Total Home Score, the company also has launched Dwellbeing, which aims to measure the “health” of your home or apartment.
Instead of waiting for something to break, take a more proactive approach to manage the ‘health’ of your home. Dwellbeing makes caring for your home simple, easing stress, reducing risk and ultimately helping to protect your home and family,” said L’Italien.
Dwellbeing is in testing with a limited number of users and is expected to be available to the broader public later this year.
Tax change gives producer new talking point in selling EPLI coverage
Until December 22, 2017, businesses could deduct from their federal income taxes confidential settlements to settle claims and suits for sexual harassment or sexual abuse as a business expense. No longer. The new Tax Reform Act prohibits any tax deductions for confidential settlements or attorney fees for any sexual harassment or sexual abuse settlement with a nondisclosure agreement.
Insurance producers showing businesses the benefits of buying employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) should emphasize this tax change. With EPLI coverage, an insurer settling a claim or suit for sexual harassment or sexual abuse on behalf of its insured can still settle on a confidential basis. The tax provisions would seem to only apply to employers and not to insured confidential settlements except for an insured’s deductible or self-insured retention.
Clearsurance – Releases First Crowd-sourced Consumer Ranking of Insurance Carriers
Massachusetts-based Clearsurance, the rating and review platform focused exclusively on the insurance industry, has announced its first annual list of the top auto, homeowners and renters insurance companies for 2018.
Contrary to other annual lists, Clearsurance’s rankings are the first derived solely from more than 50,000 customer reviews submitted by current and former policyholders on its website in 2017. This means the list is based on real consumer experiences and feedback. In today’s review culture, consumers care most about the opinion of their peers – and understand less and less what JD Power awards mean.
While no Mass.-based insurer made the list, we thought our readers would still be interested in knowing about this ranking and the results. Going forward, this will likely become an annual part of the insurtech start-up’s plan to revolutionize the reviewing system for the insurance industry, carriers and agents alike.
View the Clearsurance list of top auto, homeowners and renters insurance companies for 2018, here.
