Robert J. Walling III

Competitive Analysis - Commercial Lines

Pinnacle was approached by a major national commercial lines insurer to provide comprehensive competitive analysis of the businessowners policy (BOP) and commercial automobile insurance market places. Pinnacle’s analysis began with a comprehensive review of the products filed by the leading twenty insurers of these products examining coverage features, rating elements, tiering and scoring elements, unique coverage features and several other key product development elements. Following this initial step, Pinnacle performed detailed territory and premium comparisons for several states using a dynamic premium comparison engine that allowed investigation at the class, coverage amount and territory level of detail. The company used a batch rating feature to develop indicated rate level estimates. Mapping features looking at ranking and pricing differences were also produced. All of this information was incorporated into a countrywide overhaul of the company’s products and pricing.

Medical Malpractice Damage Caps

A state insurance regulator asked Pinnacle to determine the potential impact of several proposed tort reforms, including a change to non-economic damage caps for medical professional liability claims. Pinnacle worked with medical society to identify the most appropriate claims databases for assessing the potential legislative change. Our detailed analysis not only considered data from that state, but several others to stress test the results and provide a range of reasonable outcomes. In many cases, the specific reform’s effect, for example “I’m Sorry” legislation, was very difficult to isolate. Through this industry analysis, we identified differences well beyond a simple loss limitation to provide a more complete review of potential environmental changes that could be expected in the state.

This comprehensive analysis helped our client identify the effect of various legislative options, which empowered them to be a strong voice in the legislative debate and to influence policymaking in the state.

Underwriting & Tiering Analysis

A single state auto insurance writer hired Pinnacle to address its current rating and tiering program. We removed unnecessary underwriting restrictions and more adequately priced risk classes, which allowed the insurer to experience significant, profitable growth.

When we began, the company’s existing tiering design was only based on a few factors, including ones that significantly overlapped with the rating plan. When combined with the underwriting rules, the design was punitive and limited writable business. Through predictive modeling, we helped design a new tiering structure and applied an underwriting scoring approach to eliminate rating plan overlap and remove the overly punitive parts of the plan.