The economic impact of a natural disaster often goes far beyond property loss and business interruption. Struggling communities and companies require a fast source of emergency funding for many urgent needs, some which may not be covered by traditional insurance policies.
When Hurricane Idalia struck Florida in August 2023, it caused $3.5 billion in economic losses, of which just $1.5 billion was insured. This $2 billion protection gap highlights why public entities and corporations must reassess their risk management frameworks and ensure they have the most robust resilience strategies in place for catastrophic events.
The protection gap includes the needs of employees and residents who often struggle to manage their own situations, some unable to get to work or buy needed supplies. The dire need is there — funding, however, is often lacking, with options that range from federal assistance to going into debt.
Parametric insurance, with its flexibility and speed of payment, provides an increasingly viable alternative for public entities and businesses.
“Once you acknowledge that a significant portion of a loss and expense is not covered by traditional insurance, the question is ‘how do you fund for those uncovered losses?’” says Cole Mayer, global head of parametric at Aon. “Do you use cash on hand? Do you take on debt? Or can you transfer some of this risk with an alternative tool such as parametric insurance? The optimal answer may be a combination of these tools.”
Unlike traditional indemnity insurance, which requires a complex loss adjustment process, parametric insurance delivers capital swiftly based on predefined triggers, such as wind speed or rainfall measurements, within days of the event occurring.
As extreme weather events increase in frequency and severity amid our changing climate, the potential for catastrophic impacts grows. Such “grey swan” events threaten the risk resilience of public entities and corporations that may not be adequately covered by traditional risk management frameworks — thus exposing a protection gap that could jeopardize the recovery of affected communities and businesses in the aftermath.
Addressing Protection Gaps with Parametric
Speed of payment is critical for businesses and organizations that require immediate access to capital following an event.
- Parametric is differentiated by its coverage trigger and pre-agreed payouts. Coverage is triggered by the occurrence of an event as determined by neutral third-party data providers, simplifying the claims process.
- With an independent data trigger and pre-agreed amounts, recoveries occur quickly — as soon as days or weeks after an event. This is critical for businesses that need immediate access to capital following an event. Coverage can be broad, and a wide array of economic exposures arising directly or indirectly from an event can be insured. As a result, traditionally uninsurable exposures become insurable, with the parametric trigger providing the “missing link.”
- Additionally, parametric insurance can cover a broader range of economic losses, including non-traditional unforeseeable losses, such as non-damage business interruption, loss of attraction and loss of ingress/egress.