MSB and BuildFax Expand Strategic Partnership in Homeowners Insurance

MILWAUKEE, Jan. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Marshall & Swift/Boeckh ("MSB"), the leading worldwide provider of building cost data and estimating technology to the Property Insurance industry, and BuildFax, creators of the Property & Casualty Insurance industry's only national database of building, remodel and repair data, announced today that they are expanding their existing partnership to include advanced analytics and the integration of BuildFax data into MSB's industry-leading homeowners inspection optimization analytic solution, InspectView.

By incorporating BuildFax building permit data into InspectView, MSB has added a unique value layer that will help identify policies for inspections based on recent remodeling and repair events. The new, expanded partnership will allow insurance carrier clients of InspectView to benefit from this valuable dataset and fine-tune their risk management initiatives around field inspections.

"The expanded partnership makes MSB the only provider of an inspection optimization analytic solution with BuildFax building permit data. This further demonstrates MSB's investment in research and our commitment to the industry to deliver analytic solutions developed from truly differentiated datasets," states Steven Brewer, Senior Vice President of Underwriting Solutions of MSB. "The incremental lift provided by the BuildFax permit data will further help our clients reduce their inspection spending and enhance price-to-risk accuracy on policies."

"Our new product offering will increase actionable inspection outcomes on their homeowners renewal book and new business by targeting properties with real changes, thus making a carrier's inspection dollars more effective," states Holly Tachovsky, CEO of BuildFax.

This latest development supplements a successful collaboration between MSB and BuildFax that began in 2011 when the two organizations joined forces to develop a solution aimed at helping carriers reclaim millions in premium leakage by identifying unreported property changes along with actionable replacement value updates needed to maintain accurate Insurance to Value (ITV).

About Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MSB)
Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MSB), a Decision Insight Information Group company, is the leading provider of building cost information, residential and commercial analytics solutions and book of business management services for the property insurance companies, financial services organizations and government entities. MSB offers the industry's most extensive and validated underwriting and claims property data. Throughout their eight decades of experience, they have compiled a strong track record of consistently developing innovative property solutions, analyzing their clients' operations and providing them with the assistance needed to dramatically improve their business results. This track record continues today as they serve as the hub for all of their clients' property needs and work tirelessly to help them maximize their profitability and achieve a competitive advantage.

About BuildFax
BuildFax is the creator of the first and only national database of historical building permit data. Headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, BuildFax has created a proprietary property intelligence engine that contains building and permitting information from 4,000+ cities and counties throughout the country. Local building departments in each of these towns across the country inspect construction to make sure it meets quality and safety standards; as such it is an absolutely critical part of the public safety infrastructure. BuildFax is then able to consolidate this information into the dataset, which is a tremendous asset to professionals in the insurance, lending, inspection, and appraisal industries, as well as buyers and sellers of property. As the best and only source of a structure's "life story," the BuildFax database continues to grow, currently covering over 74 million commercial and residential properties nationwide.

SOURCE Marshall & Swift/Boeckh