Tuesday, October 25, 2011

In Few Years, Social Network Data May Be Used in Underwriting

Insurance Journal

The insurance industry is paying increasing attention to what people and businesses post on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.


Already, scouring Facebook and other social network pages of the insureds is a common practice on the claims side of the business. Many investigators say it's one of the first things they do when looking into potentially fraudulent claims, including both hard fraud (staging auto accidents, etc.) and soft fraud. (over-reporting damaged values after a fire, etc.)
Crack the Data
Currently, social network data are being used as sources of evidence in courts of law in claims cases. Individual underwriters are retrieving risk evaluation information on their insureds through manual searches on social sites.

But in a few years, automatically mined data from social networking sites could find their way into the underwriting pricing process. It could become a factor in determining premiums for both personal and business insurance, according to a new report from Boston-based research firm Celent. The report, titled "Using Social Data in Claims and Underwriting," was published on Oct. 10.

Right now, most insurers are using social medium for sales and advertising, Michael Fitzgerald, Celent senior analyst and co-author of the report, told In [...]



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