Reports & Research

Are rising storm costs and inaccurate roof assessments impacting your bottom line?

Now available to stream, The Science of Roof Risk master class will equip you with the latest strategies and techniques to master roof risk assessment.

• Enhance your roof risk assessment by 60X
• Improve your combined ratio
• Reduce storm-related roof claims
• Strengthen new business selection

What we cover:

Your presenters, Ross Martin (VP, Risk Analytics) and Sam Fetchero (Head of Marketing) will share with you:

• The Problem of the Roof:  Uncover the underlying factors driving rising storm losses and why traditional risk assessment methods fall short.
• The Science Behind Predicting Losses: Explore key factors impacting  roof risk and loss prediction, including roof age, condition, complexity, and peril-specific models.
• Accuracy-focused Risk Models: Discover advanced modeling techniques that enhance predictive accuracy.
• Understanding Storm Climatology: Learn how storm climatology impacts roof risk and how to integrate these insights into your risk assessment strategies.
• Real-World Results: Witness a comparative analysis of these predictive factors using actual carrier data. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
• Priorities of Leading P&C Insurers: 
  See what your peers asked with valuable insights to take back to your team.

Who Should Watch?

This video is ideal for Executives, Product Managers, Actuaries, Underwriters, and CAT Modelers committed to enhancing their roof risk assessment capabilities. 

Bonus Guide

As a bonus for watching, you'll receive a downloadable study on the latest roof risk assessment strategies: Preparing for the Storm: The Insurers Guide to Roof Risk.

Access Now

From Costly Water Losses to Millions in Savings

Non-weather water claims are a leading cause of property insurance losses, costing insurers over $20 billion annually. 

Join us for a FREE live webinar where our experts will discuss the latest trends, challenges, and insights to help you mitigate non-weather water risk.

What We'll Cover

Our experts Rob Silva, ACAS (Director of Customer Success) & Sam Fetchero (Head of Marketing) will present:

• Current Trends: Understand the rise in severity and total loss costs of non-weather water claims.
• Risk Assessment Challenges: Learn why traditional methods fall short in assessing non-weather water vulnerability.
• Key Risk Factors: Identify the main drivers of non-weather water damage.
• Strategic Insights: Discover strategies to improve your management of non-weather water claims.
• Z-WATER in Action: Experience our new AI-powered model that predicts non-weather water risk with unparalleled accuracy.
• Interactive Q&A: Get your questions answered by our experts.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is ideal for Executives, Product Managers, Actuaries, Underwriters, and CAT Modelers committed to enhancing their understanding and management of non-weather water risks. 

Bonus Content

As a bonus, you'll receive our exclusive infographic, "Below the Surface: Research Reveals Knowledge Gap in Homeowner Water Loss Prevention and Coverage."

This research gives key insights into water loss experiences, coverage details, homeowner protection measures, and information on water shutoff devices and heater conditions.

Register Now

It’s hard to overstate how important the roof is from an insurability standpoint. The roof represents significant risks and potential opportunities, making it a critical focus area for insurers. This has become even more important in recent years as the impact of severe convective storms is often reflected in roof losses. Understanding this, ZestyAI has released new research for property insurers called The Insurers Guide to Roof Risk.

Download The Insurers Guide to Roof Risk

In an era where the severity and frequency of roof-related claims are on the rise, particularly due to the increasing impact of severe convective storms, innovative tools and strategies are essential. The Insurers Guide to Roof Risk provides actionable insights to improve risk assessment, underwriting processes, and overall business strategy.

What’s Inside the Guide?

The Insurers Guide to Roof Risk includes:

• Roof Failure Factors: Learn the underlying contributing factors behind why older roofs fail more often.
• Beyond Roof Age: Discover why roof complexity, condition, and climate are more important than roof age alone.
• Identifying Missing Risk Factors: Understand the key factors to roof risk that most traditional models miss.
• Advanced Risk Segmentation: See how using machine learning and new data sources can split risk more than 60 times better than traditional models.
• Portfolio Optimization: Access a comprehensive toolbox to optimize your portfolio and new business selection to generate exponential lift versus traditional models.

Download Now

Annual Wildfire Season Overview provides insights to assist insurers in effectively managing wildfire risk.

ZestyAI has released its annual Wildfire Season Overview for 2024. This year’s guide provides critical insights carriers need to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving wildfire landscape. Offering more than just data, this year’s guide is designed to help insurers make informed risk decisions in some of the country’s most volatile states. 

Download ZestyAI's 2024 Wildfire Season Overview 

This year’s guide includes: 

• Countrywide Wildfire Impact Analysis: Understand how wildfires are affecting regions beyond traditional hotspots like CA, including significant events in TX & NM.
• Future Wildfire Trends: Explore predictions for the 2024 wildfire season and understand the long-term implications of current conditions on wildfire risks.
• Regulatory Insights: Stay updated on the latest regulations affecting wildfire risk assessment insurance practices.
• AI-driven Risk Models: Learn how ZestyAI's Z-FIRE model accurately predicts wildfire risks and assists insurers in making informed decisions.
• Property-Level Risk Assessments: Discover the importance of granular, property-specific risk evaluations to improve underwriting accuracy and transparency for consumers.

Download Now

Costing insurers approximately $19 billion every year, roof claims stand as the primary driver of property insurance losses.

Traditional methods of obtaining roof age information are deeply flawed. Most carriers depend on policyholder or agent-reported data, which is often inaccurate, leading to blind spots in assessing property risk. In a recent ZestyAI survey, 63 percent of homeowners reported not knowing the age of their roof if they were not in their homes the last time it was replaced.

Join our expert panel for a deep dive into leveraging roof age analytics for a cutting-edge underwriting process and gain insider knowledge on:

• The Leading Cause of Claims: unveil the hidden truths behind roof-related claims and the costly consequences of outdated assessment methods.
• A New Era of Data: Learn about ZestyAI’s pioneering approach to roof age analytics, incorporating building permits, historical imagery, and AI for a comprehensive view
• Precision at Scale: See how to apply precise, AI-driven roof age data across your entire portfolio for consistent and reliable underwriting and claims decisions
• Technical Decision Making: Empower your actuaries and underwriters with the insights needed to enhance risk selection and optimize pricing strategies
• Efficiency in Operations: Streamline inspections and operations, focusing resources where they’re needed most, improving time-to-quote, and enriching the customer experience
• Best Practices: Learn how leading carriers are using roof age, roof condition, and peril-specific models to improve risk selection and lower combined ratios 

This transformative session is available on demand. Learn how to enhance accuracy, efficiency, and profitability in property insurance.

Save Your Spot

In an ever-evolving regulatory environment, staying informed and adaptable is crucial. Our latest interactive guide, "When Innovation and Regulation Meet", offers a comprehensive toolkit for navigating the complexities of insurance compliance and the integration of AI technologies. 

What's Inside?

• Regulatory Landscape Map: Delve into a detailed state-by-state analysis, uncovering the intricacies of filing laws and approval speeds.
• Staying Ahead of Regulation Changes: Learn how to stay prepared and ensure your compliance strategies are future-proof, aligning with the latest regulatory expectations.
• Essential AI Partner Checklist: Choosing the right AI partner is crucial for success. Our guide offers a meticulous checklist for selecting a partner that is not only compliant but also transparent and supportive, ensuring you make an informed decision.
• Emerging Regulatory Concerns: What do you need to know about privacy, bias, and AI oversight?
• Real-World Applications: Discover how ZestyAI's collaborative approach with regulatory entities has led to successful model approvals across the United States. 

Why This Guide?

As the regulatory framework becomes increasingly complex, having a reliable and insightful resource is indispensable. Our guide is tailored for insurance professionals seeking to enhance their regulatory strategy, embrace AI innovation responsibly, and achieve a competitive edge in the market.

Ready to get up to speed on 2024's regulatory environment? Access the guide.

P&C Insurance Is Being Rewritten - Quietly but Rapidly.

Filings from the last three years show faster shifts in P&C products than at any point in recent history - and those changes are now surfacing at scale.

Endorsements, exclusions, deductibles, and appetite resets are reshaping coverage and competitive positioning across carriers. But the pace isn't uniform. National carriers, regionals, MGAs, and farm bureaus are moving in different directions - and most teams don't have visibility into how quickly competitors are adjusting forms and filings.

This session breaks down the signals that matter for 2026 product strategy.

‍Drawing on 2M+ carrier filings, Stephanie Kuczynski reveals the real trends reshaping P&C product strategy headed into 2026.

You'll learn what's accelerating, where carriers diverge, and how to translate these shifts into action.

What You Will Gain

• Which changes are accelerating fastest — and where carriers diverge. State-by-state adoption patterns for endorsements, deductibles, and coverage restrictions.
• How strategies differ by carrier size and focus — niche players vs. nationals. The creative, targeted approaches emerging from regionals and MGAs versus the broad strategies deployed by national carriers.
• Where regulators are drawing the line on coverage restrictions. Prepare for closer state-level inspection, due diligence, and shifting expectations across markets.
• How these shifts impact 2026 product strategy and competitive positioning. Why the pace and direction of changes matter — and how to ensure your strategy reflects where the market is heading.

Watch Now

ZestyAI today announced that Southern Oak Insurance Company has expanded its partnership with ZestyAI following nine months of demonstrated impact on portfolio decisions across its Florida homeowners portfolio.

Southern Oak initially adopted ZestyAI in 2025 to gain clearer visibility into property-level risk in one of the most complex and loss-prone insurance markets in the U.S.

Z-PROPERTY applies computer vision and machine learning across aerial imagery, building permits, tax assessment records, and other verified data sources to evaluate properties in 3D—assessing structural condition, exposure, and characteristics that influence claim frequency and severity across perils, including roof complexity, materials, and condition.

Tony Loughman, CEO of Southern Oak Insurance Company, said:

“Within months of deploying ZestyAI, it became clear that property-level intelligence needed to play a larger role in how we evaluate and manage risk. Expanding our partnership allows us to build on that foundation with greater confidence in the data behind our decisions, particularly in a market where roof condition, complexity, and exposure can materially impact outcomes.”

The expanded partnership reflects Southern Oak’s continued focus on proactive risk management in Florida’s volatile insurance environment, where traditional data sources often fail to capture the real condition and vulnerability of individual homes.

“Southern Oak’s decision to expand just nine months in is a strong signal of the value property-level intelligence delivers when it’s put into production,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

“With Z-PROPERTY embedded in its risk decisions, Southern Oak sees risk more clearly, acts earlier, and makes more defensible decisions in a highly regulated, high-risk market.”

ZestyAI’s models are built with transparency, validation, and regulatory readiness at the forefront, giving insurers confidence to rely on them in portfolio decisions. The platform is used by leading insurers to improve underwriting accuracy, manage exposure, and reduce loss volatility across weather- and non-weather-driven perils.

‍

ZestyAI today announced that Lilypad-Centauri is using ZestyAI’s Roof Age and Z-PROPERTY™ solutions to enhance its view of property risk across coastal homeowners and dwelling fire portfolios.

Lilypad-Centauri focuses on delivering stable and reliable coverage to homeowners and property owners in hurricane- and catastrophe-exposed coastal communities. By leveraging ZestyAI’s building attributes and parcel-level characteristics, Lilypad-Centauri gains a clearer view of property risk and how exposure accumulates across its coastal portfolio.

Lilypad-Centauri, through its managing general agency, is deploying two of ZestyAI’s proven solutions to gain a more granular, defensible view of property risk:​

1. Roof Age delivers verified roof age by cross-validating building permit records with over 20 years of aerial imagery, detecting roof replacement events, and assigning confidence scores across 97% of U.S. properties.
2. Z-PROPERTY™ applies AI to high-resolution aerial imagery to assess roof complexity, materials, and condition, while evaluating parcel-level features such as vegetation overhang, yard debris, and secondary structures that influence claim frequency and severity across multiple perils.

“Coastal properties present a unique combination of exposure, from roof condition and construction features to how the parcel is maintained,” said Tony Hare, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Underwriting Officer of Lilypad-Centauri.

“ZestyAI’s roof and parcel-level analytics give us a clearer, property-level view of the homes we insure, helping us reduce uncertainty and better manage portfolio volatility.”

“Lilypad-Centauri is building a more resilient coastal portfolio by replacing exposure unknowns with verifiable property‑level truth,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

“Granular, regulator-approved analytics bring confidence to the risk and capital decisions behind reliable customer protection.”

ZestyAI works closely with regulators to ensure transparency, validation, and continuous monitoring of its AI-driven models. Its portfolio of risk models has secured nearly 100 approvals from regulators nationwide, giving insurers confidence they can be deployed immediately with the accuracy and transparency regulators demand.

ZestyAI, the Risk and Decision Intelligence Platform for the insurance industry, today announced that Marsh McLennan Agency (MMA), a subsidiary of Marsh (NYSE: MRSH), has adopted its risk analytics

By leveraging three cutting-edge solutions from ZestyAI, Z-FIRE™, Roof Age, and Z-PROPERTY™, the MMA Private Client Services team was able to improve wildfire risk evaluation for these homeowners by analyzing detailed property data and loss history and assessing roof age and condition using high-resolution aerial imagery. This strategic deployment enhanced their ability to offer more precise, customized insurance and risk management solutions for their clients’ high-value homes.

“Safeguarding the lifestyles and legacies of our clients requires a forward-looking approach to risk,” said Robert Pritula, Senior Vice President, National Placement and Solutions Leader of MMA’s Private Client Services division.

“We are always looking for new ways to leverage cutting-edge technologies that will allow us to offer clients tailored and effective solutions to mitigate the threats facing their most valuable assets, including their homes.”

“MMA has built its reputation on exceptional client service and proactive risk management,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

“With granular risk analytics backed by industry standards and proven accuracy, they are leading the way in how high-value portfolios can be protected with confidence.”

ZestyAI works closely with regulators to ensure transparency, validation, and continuous monitoring of its AI-driven models. Its portfolio of models has secured more than 80 approvals from regulators nationwide, including Z-FIRE™, which has been approved across every wildfire-prone state, giving insurers confidence they can be deployed immediately with the accuracy and transparency regulators demand.

ZestyAI Product Insights

Winter Storm Fern has evolved into a historic catastrophe for the U.S. insurance industry. Between January 23-27, 2026, the storm shattered records by placing over 230 million Americans under severe winter alerts, with a death toll of 85 as of February 3rd. 

Preliminary industry estimates place insured losses at $6.7 billion, potentially making Fern the third-costliest U.S. winter storm on record, trailing Elliott (2022) and Uri (2021). The crisis is far from over. The National Weather Service warns of a "historic duration" of extreme cold, with temperatures 15 to 25 degrees below average, that continues to hamper mitigation efforts.

For carriers, Fern is a complex, multi-peril challenge. Claims teams are navigating a surge of freeze-related losses, ice-driven structural damage, and widespread business interruptions across 34 states. 

To understand the stakes, one needs to look no further than February 2021, when Winter Storm Uri brought Texas to its knees and generated over $11 billion in insured losses from a single state. Fern’s footprint is broader, and its secondary effects are still unfolding.

The Cold Hard Numbers from Storm Uri: Why Claims Explode Below 5°F

Our analysis of the 2021 Storm Uri reveals a striking relationship between temperature deviation and claim frequency for the non-weather water and freeze perils. Using data from multiple carriers, we tracked daily claim rates against minimum temperatures: before, during, and after the storm window (February 11-20, 2021).

The results show how rapidly falling temperatures can transform a routine winter pattern into a systemic loss event, allowing us to monitor the market’s response in real-time as conditions deteriorated, peaked, and normalized.

The results are dramatic:

‍

Figure 1: Daily claim rates (blue line) surged 126X above the baseline in a temporal spike as temperatures (orange line) plunged below the 20-year average (dashed green line) during Winter Storm Uri.

The chart reveals a clear inverse relationship: as minimum temperatures dropped from the mid-40s°F to below 5°F, daily claim rates didn’t just rise, they increased 126X, from a baseline of 0.04% to 0.46% at the peak. This dramatic surge underscores the significant consequences of extreme cold events on insurance liability.

Figure 2: ZestyAI’s Z-WATER™ demonstrated an 11X increase in claim frequency between ‘Very High’ and ‘Very Low’ risk tiers during Winter Storm Uri

We used ZestyAI’s Z-WATER™ to segment the property-specific non-weather water risk across the 10-day storm window. Z-WATER™ is a risk model that accounts for how plumbing design, local climate, and infrastructure reliability interact to drive non-weather water and freeze losses. By capturing real-world dynamics, such as temperature swings that stress pipes and electrical grid failures that amplify claims, the model delivers a scientifically grounded view of property-level risk.

The results were definitive: properties that Z-WATER™ scored as ‘Very High’ risk filed 26 claims per 1,000, compared to just 2.2 claims per 1,000 for those scored as ‘Very Low’, an 11X increase in claim frequency.

This accurate segmentation reveals a clear path to managing volatility. Z-WATER™ provides a deep understanding of a home’s resilience across the full spectrum of loss mechanisms, from everyday plumbing failures to expensive outlier events like Storms Uri and Fern. By enabling precise intra-territory risk splitting, the model allows carriers to price and underwrite more reliably, ensuring premiums reflect the true risk profile while protecting the portfolio against systemic losses.

The January 2026 Storm: History Rhyming?

While we can already see the immediate impact of Winter Storm Fern, the primary difference between Fern and Winter Storm Uri is the duration of the freezing event itself, rather than any changes in how quickly policyholders are filing their claims.

As shown in Figure 1, NWW claims rise rapidly as temperatures fall and taper off quickly once conditions normalize. The risk in prolonged cold events lies in how long properties stay below the Plumbing Design Temperature; the longer the freeze, the greater the likelihood of systemic plumbing failure.

During Winter Storm Uri, extended sub-freezing conditions significantly increased the number of days in which vulnerable properties were exposed to frozen pipe failures, driving aggregate losses to historic levels. Fern is now exhibiting a similar duration profile, with sub-freezing conditions persisting for up to 10 consecutive days across parts of the Northeast. The National Weather Service has warned this “could be the longest duration of cold in several decades,” raising the likelihood of elevated losses even if individual claims remain tightly clustered in time.

For carriers, the warning signs are already flashing:

• The Power Failure Multiplier: During the storm's peak, over 1 million customers lost power. In the South, where homes lack the heavy thermal insulation of northern properties, a power outage is the primary driver of catastrophic pipe bursts. Without active heating, a property can reach the "burst threshold" within hours.
• The $30,000 Claim Severity Benchmark: Recent State Farm data underscores the high stakes of these events. Winter water damage claims totaled over $628 million, with the average claim payment now exceeding $30,000. For carriers, this high per-claim severity means even a moderate frequency surge can quickly erode Q1 margins.
• Regional Fragility in the South: While the initial assessments are still surfacing, early industry estimates for privately insured losses from Winter Storm Fern puts the damage at $4 billion to $7 billion. With Texas and Tennessee identified as the hardest-hit states, carriers are facing a "Uri-style" scenario in which infrastructure wasn't designed for a 10-day deep freeze.

From Reactive to Predictive: Solving the $6.7 Billion Freeze Risk Equation

The 2021 Texas freeze taught us that traditional approaches to freeze risk are highly insufficient. Many properties that experienced burst pipes were in areas that rarely see extended freezing temperatures, meaning they lacked adequate winterization. 

This is where predictive analytics becomes essential. By modelling the interaction between property-level vulnerabilities and local temperature thresholds, carriers can better identify which properties are most vulnerable to freeze events before the damage actually occurs.

Key Risk Drivers Identified in Our Latest Analysis:

• The Design Mismatch: The greatest risk isn't just the cold; it's the sudden change in temperature. Properties in states like Texas or Tennessee face a higher risk because they are built to release heat, not trap it. They lack the heavy insulation and deep-buried pipes needed to survive a 10-day freeze.

• The Power Grid Vulnerability: Our analysis shows that areas prone to power outages face a compounded risk. In the South, a home’s primary defense is its heating system so when the power fails and the heater stops, the "burst threshold" can be reached in just a few hours.

• Building Vulnerabilities: Our analysis shows that older homes and properties with plumbing routed through exterior walls are disproportionately represented among $30,000 non-weather water losses.

The Bottom Line for Carriers

The 2021 Texas freeze was a pivotal moment for the industry, generating more than 500,000 claims and $11.2 billion in insured losses in a single state. Today, Winter Storm Fern represents an even broader systemic threat, with weather alerts impacting 230 million people across more than 30 states.

While the final tally for Fern is still developing, the data is already clear: temperature shocks drive claims at exponential rates. With early industry assessments estimating privately insured losses between $4 billion and $7 billion, it is evident that the prolonged duration and geographic anomaly of extreme weather events are the primary drivers of this volatility.

For carriers looking to protect their Q1 margins, predictive analytics are no longer a luxury; they are a requirement. By analyzing property-level characteristics, regional vulnerabilities, and historical temperature deviations, you can move from reactive claims handling to proactive risk management. 

The question isn't whether another major freeze will occur, but whether your portfolio is prepared for the next 126-fold surge.

Learn More About Z-WATER 

ZestyAI’s Z-WATER™ provides the industry’s most granular view of interior water risk, helping carriers accurately and reliably assess properties in areas prone to temperature shock events. By analyzing detailed property-level characteristics alongside historical weather patterns and regional risk factors, our advanced models predict the likelihood of Non-Weather Water (NWW) and freeze claims as well as their associated severity. This deeper level of analysis empowers carriers to make smarter pricing decisions before the next major storm hits.

Methodology: Analysis based on aggregated claims from multiple Texas carriers during Winter Storm Uri (February 2021). Temperature data reflects mean daily minimums across the exposure footprint, weighted by ZIP Code to account for geographic density. The claim/exposure ratio was calculated by dividing daily claims by the average policy-day exposure.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

¹CNN Weather, "More than 230 million people under alerts for potential ice, heavy snow and extreme cold," January 2026. [link]

²Fox News, "Noem coordinates with Mississippi officials as state recovers from deadly winter storm," January 2026. [link] 

³Insurance Innovation Reporter, “KCC Estimates $6.7 Billion in Insured Losses from Winter Storm Fern,“ February 2026 [link]

⁴Texas Department of Insurance, "Insured Losses Resulting from the February 2021 Texas Winter Weather Event," March 2022. [link]

 ⁵Fox Business, “More than 1 million Americans lose power as monster winter storm sweeps across the US,” January 2025 [link]

 ⁶Carrier Management, “Frozen Pipes Lead to $628M in Losses for State Farm,” January, 2026 [link]

⁷ Barrons, “Winter Storm Fern Packed a Wallop. Now the Cost Estimates Are Rolling In.,“ February 2026 [link]

‍

ZestyAI today announced that Logic Underwriters has adopted ZestyAI’s Z-PROPERTY™, Z-HAIL™, and Z-WIND™ solutions to improve underwriting and rating precision across its personal and commercial property portfolio in Texas.

Texas is the most expensive severe convective storm market in the United States, with hail and damaging wind driving billions of dollars in insured losses every year.

"Texas is one of the most challenging storm markets in the U.S., and we need tools that match that reality," said Bill Motz, Director of Operations, Logic Underwriters.

"ZestyAI's detailed property insights and dedicated hail and wind models will help us continue to provide exemplary service to our clients—from more accurate risk assessments to better loss prevention guidance in increasingly volatile weather conditions."

ZestyAI’s property-specific hail and wind models predict the likelihood and severity of storm-driven claims by analyzing how local climatology interacts with detailed property characteristics—helping underwriters to distinguish meaningful differences in risk within the same rating territory. Each model is trained on validated claims data, offering transparent explanations of the key factors driving risk.

Z-PROPERTY applies AI to high-resolution aerial imagery and multi-source data to assess roof condition, structural complexity, and parcel-level features such as vegetation overhang, yard debris, and secondary structures—factors that directly influence claim frequency and severity across multiple perils.

“Logic Underwriters is exactly the kind of forward-looking partner that is redefining underwriting in high-exposure states,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

"This collaboration shows how property-level intelligence can support underwriting excellence and disciplined decision-making while helping policyholders better understand and protect their properties. When insurers can identify specific risk factors like roof condition or vegetation overhang, they can provide actionable guidance that helps clients reduce their exposure and minimize losses."

ZestyAI’s severe convective storm models are approved in 30 states, spanning the nation’s highest-exposure hail and wind markets, and used by leading insurers across the country.