5th May 2022: Acies SME UK MGA, a UK-based tech-focused MGA, today announced a partnership with Previsico, the live flood alert InsurTech. This partnership creates the first Property Insurance policy to offer a preventative alert service for UK SME companies to boost their flood resilience.

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Previsico’s technology predicts flood events that are not covered by any other warning system, with an alert service that will come from Acies SME UK MGA that is designed to predict location, time, and depth of flooding before it happens. This will enable SMEs in the UK to protect their business by initiating flood resilience measures, such as moving stock to higher ground, removing mobile assets from harm’s way, and setting up defences. 

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This tech-driven SMS and email alert service enables customers, insurers, and their loss adjusters to react to potential incidents before thy happen, reducing Business Interruption, benefitting from an improved claims response, and minimising the flood risk.

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Mark Heath, CEO of Acies MGU Holdings, said: “As a Managing General Underwriter (MGU), we are driven by technology, data insights, and ‘de-risking the risk’ for both our clients and insurer partners. We create products and services with experienced underwriters that are needed for today. Embedding world-class tech into our offering means that our partnership with Previsico is a perfect fit for us and our clients.” 

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John Sadler, Managing Director of Acies SME UK MGA, said: “As reported by last year’s Aviva research, businesses across the UK underestimate the threat of extreme weather. Flooding is a problem and unfortunately isn’t going away and Acies SME UK MGA and Previsico are now at ‘phase 1’ of our plan to help the SME sector in dealing with an ongoing and expanding problem. We will deliver insured-, broker- and insurer-specific alerts directly to mobile phones and/or via email, making it relevant and easy to act upon.”

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Commenting on the partnership, Jonathan Jackson, CEO of Previsico, said: “Climate change and urbanisation are escalating flood impacts – particularly in areas previously unaffected by flooding. Yet, most flood impacts are avoidable. Our partnership with Acies SME UK MGA will enable them to support their clients in addressing this huge issue, with only 40% of SME’s coming back to business after flooding.”

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The partnership is important as surface water flooding makes up almost 60% of UK flood risk, with Environment Agency warnings only covering the other 40% for major rivers and the sea. Further, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “climate change could increase the annual cost of flooding in the UK almost 15-fold by the 2080s under high emission scenarios.” Also, a threefold increase in damage to commercial property from climate related risk is now predicted by risk analysts XDI 1000 by 2050.

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Previsico’s next generation live flood forecasting solution uniquely brings together the latest weather data from the Met Office, IBM, and their advanced flood modelling capabilities to address the increasing global issue of surface water flooding for insurers and their public and major corporate clients.

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