Baseball-sized hail falls, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions pays: Baylor University parametric HAIL success story

Since 2000, the United States has experienced a sharp increase of insured hail losses each year, with average annual losses reaching approximately $35 billion since 2020. The trend has continued into 2023, with almost 7,000 hail reports throughout the continental US, with over 1,000 of those events occurring in Texas, a state particularly susceptible to severe hailstorms.   

Public entities and higher education institutions, such as Baylor University in Waco, Texas, often own large portfolios of high-value assets that are susceptible to property damage from hail events. Swiss Re Corporate Solution's parametric hail insurance product (HAIL) offered an ideal solution. The policy provided budget certainty by increasing Baylor's hail coverage at affordable rates. Following a large hail event in April 2023, the parametric insurance proceeds were delivered within days after the storm, allowing Baylor to initiate recovery efforts.

Supported by CoreLogic's hail verification technology, HAIL considers the maximum hail size at each covered location and disburses funds based on customized payout functions that address the particular and unique needs of each and every buyer.

In late April, central Texas was impacted by severe thunderstorms hitting Waco, TX with "baseball-sized" hail stones. Baylor University incurred physical damage and quickly informed Swiss Re Corporate Solutions about a potential event. Corporate Solutions confirmed that the hail sizes at the client’s locations were sufficient to trigger the policy and initiate payment. Baylor University received its parametric insurance payout within days of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions receiving the event notice.

Paul Fox – Senior Director of Risk Management, Baylor University

"The benefits of parametric insurance coverage are multi-fold. The creation of the policy provides flexibility of coverage, allowing the university to self-identify the exposed location(s) used to determine the payout based on the reported maximum hail size. The other major benefits are the speed of payment and the flexible use of the payout funds. We were thrilled when Baylor University received a payment from Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in less than 14 days after our hail event notification. This gave us the opportunity to recover from our losses much quicker, leading to less stress, and more budget certainty. The product operated exactly as expected."

Learn more about our HAIL parametric solution.

_{Swiss Re Corporate Solutions parametric insurance in the United States is offered by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Capacity Insurance Corporation which is only available from licensed surplus lines brokers. Availability of this insurance varies by jurisdiction. This communication is not intended as a solicitation to purchase insurance or non-insurance products.}