Parametric Hail Insurance

Hail presents an escalating threat to property, solar infrastructure, and agriculture globally. In response to rising annual losses, parametric insurance emerges to provide corporations with robust coverage against hail damage, even in highly-exposed areas.

Addressing the hail risk

Hail driven losses across North America, Europe, and Australia are significant - with nearly 10 billion in losses in North America alone in 2023. The impact of hail can vary widely based on size of hailstones and intensity, from shattered windows and dented vehicles to severe damage to roofs and high-value crops.

Year after year, hail ranks among the top perils for insured losses. This poses significant financial burdens for both the insurance and reinsurance sectors. Its complexity in modeling and lack of understanding, compounded by recent high-impact events, have led to a shortage of available capacity for corporate clients in the traditional insurance market. This means corporations that are exposed to severe convective storms are often going uninsured or seeking alternative risk transfer solutions to fill their programs.

Leveraging the latest in radar and satellite technologies, Descartes excels in precisely modeling hail storms across many regions of the world. This empowers us to offer fresh capacity precisely where our clients require it most, particularly in industries reliant on solar panels, outdoor vehicle storage, high-value crops, greenhouses, and more. The parametric funds disbursed in the event of a payout can be utilized as compensation for physical damage, as well as non-damage ramifications.

Step 1

Assess

We assess and evaluate the client’s hail exposure, utilizing our satellite and radar-based proprietary risk model.

Step 2

Customize

Design a customized cover, fit to the client’s unique needs, in which payout structures are indexed according to hail stone size.

Step 3

Monitor

Upon policy inception, we monitor the insured's location for hailstorms to determine whether a qualifying storm has occurred.

Step 4

Payout

Insured client receives a payout within days of reporting a loss, accelerating financial recovery and return to normal operations.

Our case studies are all over the world

Utilizing Machine Learning and real-time monitoring from satellite imagery & IoT, our state-of-the-art technology helps businesses bounce back faster against climate, cyber and other emerging risks.

North America Public sector Hail Parametric Insurance Protecting Universities from Severe Hail Damage See the case study
North America Renewable Energy Hail Descartes’ Alternative Risk Transfer Solution for Solar Industry See the case study
Global Retail Hail Parametric Hail Insurance for Car Dealerships See the case study

Our parametric approach to hail risk

Our parametric hail product is supported by an in-house “hail-risk model” that integrates the client’s unique asset information with ground report data, satellite imagery, and radar data to assess the probability of a hail event occurring for a potential policyholder. This innovative approach enables us to provide capacity in exposed areas and provide our clients with the most accurate assessment of risk, aligning seamlessly with their unique risk profile and financial parameters.

In full collaboration with the broker & client, our team is able to design a customized cover that is structured to indemnify based on predefined stone sizes. The structure is calibrated to each insured asset, and hail exposure is continually monitored by radar data and on-site sensors to provide real-time hail detection, capturing the stone size and storm intensity with high granularity.

This approach enables us to swiftly compute parametric payouts following a hailstorm event, facilitating prompt compensation that clients can rely on, without the need for a lengthy indemnity claims process.

Our success story

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