Verisk

The data backbone of the insurance industry. ISO policy forms, catastrophe modeling, aerial imagery, claims analytics — Verisk products are used by virtually every US P&C insurer and thousands of brokerages. Public company (NASDAQ: VRSK), $3B+ annual revenue.

Pricing

Custom (product-based)

Developer

Verisk Analytics ↗

Founded

1971

Best For

Risk DataISO FormsCat Modeling

What is Verisk?

Verisk Analytics is the largest data analytics company serving the global insurance industry. Founded in 1971 as Insurance Services Office (ISO) — a nonprofit rating and advisory organization created by insurance companies to standardize policy forms and collect statistical data — Verisk has evolved into a publicly traded (NASDAQ: VRSK) data and analytics powerhouse with $3B+ in annual revenue, 9,000+ employees, and operations in 30+ countries. For the average insurance agent or broker, "Verisk" is synonymous with ISO — the standardized policy forms (ISO coverage forms, endorsements, and manual rules) that form the foundation of virtually every property and casualty insurance policy written in the United States. When you read a commercial general liability policy, a business owners policy (BOP), or a commercial auto policy, the coverage language is almost certainly based on an ISO form — and that form was developed and is maintained by Verisk. But Verisk's product portfolio extends far beyond ISO forms into virtually every aspect of insurance data and analytics: catastrophe modeling (predicting losses from hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and terrorism), property risk assessment (aerial imagery analysis of roof condition, building characteristics, and surrounding hazards), claims analytics (fraud detection, severity prediction, subrogation identification), underwriting data (business classification, loss costs, predictive models), and emerging risk analytics (climate change impact, cyber risk quantification, supply chain disruption). For insurance agents and brokers, Verisk products are typically accessed through the carrier or MGA they are quoting with — the carrier uses Verisk data to underwrite the risk — though some Verisk tools are available directly to agents for pre-qualification and risk assessment.

Verisk's role in the insurance ecosystem is unique and sometimes controversial. On one hand, ISO forms provide the standardization that makes insurance markets efficient — without them, every carrier would use different policy language, making it impossible for agents to compare coverage or for courts to interpret policy terms consistently. Verisk's statistical data (loss costs, rating factors) provides the actuarial foundation for insurance pricing. On the other hand, Verisk's market position has attracted antitrust scrutiny — the company's data and forms are so deeply embedded in insurance infrastructure that it holds a position that would be described as a natural monopoly in other industries. In 2020, Verisk settled an antitrust lawsuit regarding its alleged monopolization of insurance form creation and data collection, agreeing to make certain data more accessible. Despite these controversies, Verisk remains the indispensable data utility of the insurance industry — if you write P&C insurance in the US, you use Verisk products whether you know it or not.

Key Products for Insurance Agents

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ISO Policy Forms & Coverage Rules

ISO forms are the standard language for the vast majority of commercial and personal lines insurance policies in the US. When an agent quotes a commercial general liability policy through a carrier, the coverage is typically based on the ISO CG 00 01 form (the standard CGL coverage form) plus carrier-specific endorsements that modify the coverage. Understanding ISO forms is fundamental to being a competent insurance agent: when a client asks "Am I covered for this?", the answer depends on the ISO form language plus any endorsements. Verisk provides: the ISO Commercial Lines Manual (classification codes, rating rules, and coverage guidelines for every commercial line of business — workers' compensation, general liability, commercial property, commercial auto, inland marine, crime, boiler & machinery, farm, and professional liability), ISO coverage forms and endorsements (the actual policy language — thousands of standardized forms and endorsements that carriers adopt, modify, or supplement), ISO loss costs and rating factors (the statistical foundation for insurance pricing — Verisk collects premium and loss data from carriers and publishes advisory loss costs that most carriers use as the starting point for their rates), and circulars and bulletins (regulatory updates, form changes, and coverage interpretations — critical for staying current as ISO regularly updates forms in response to court decisions and evolving risks). For agents, ISO knowledge is a competitive advantage: the agent who understands why the CG 21 47 endorsement (automatic additional insured — completed operations) matters for a construction client, and can explain it to the client in plain English, is providing value that a direct-to-consumer website cannot.

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Property Risk Assessment — Aerial Imagery & 360Value

Verisk's property risk assessment tools are among the most sophisticated in the industry and are increasingly available to agents through carrier portals and direct access. Key products include: Verisk Aerial Imagery — high-resolution aerial photographs of virtually every property in the US, captured through Verisk's own fleet of aircraft (the company operates one of the largest aerial imagery programs outside of government). The imagery is analyzed by AI to assess: roof condition (age, material, shape, visible damage — a key underwriting factor that previously required physical inspection), building characteristics (square footage, number of stories, construction type, presence of outbuildings, swimming pools, trampolines), and surrounding hazards (proximity to bodies of water for flood risk, vegetation density for wildfire risk, neighboring properties in poor condition). This aerial analysis allows carriers — and increasingly agents — to pre-qualify property risks without visiting the property. 360Value — Verisk's replacement cost estimator, used to determine how much it would cost to rebuild a property for insurance-to-value purposes. 360Value uses detailed building characteristic data (construction materials, quality, features) and local construction costs to estimate replacement cost — a critical calculation because underinsuring a property leads to coinsurance penalties, while overinsuring leads to unnecessarily high premiums. Verisk Property Intel — a comprehensive property risk report that aggregates: catastrophe risk scores (hurricane, earthquake, flood, wildfire, hail, wind, tornado — scored on a 1-100 scale), protection class (fire department quality and distance — a key rating factor for property insurance), Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS — how well the local jurisdiction enforces building codes), crime risk scores, and water supply data. For agents writing property insurance, access to this data improves quote accuracy, reduces the risk of E&O claims, and enables informed coverage recommendations.

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Catastrophe Modeling — AIR Worldwide

In 2021, Verisk acquired AIR Worldwide, one of the world's leading catastrophe modeling firms, for $1.6 billion. AIR's models simulate the frequency, severity, and location of natural catastrophes — hurricanes, earthquakes, severe convective storms (tornadoes, hail), floods, wildfires, winter storms, and terrorism events — and estimate the resulting insured losses. For insurance agents, catastrophe modeling is relevant in two ways: (1) when quoting property risks in catastrophe-exposed areas (coastal Florida, California wildfire zones, Gulf Coast hurricane regions, Midwest tornado alley), the agent needs to understand whether the risk will be acceptable to carriers and at what pricing — AIR models inform carrier underwriting, and agents who understand cat modeling can set client expectations appropriately; (2) for commercial clients with multiple properties, catastrophe modeling can inform risk management decisions — "Your coastal warehouse has a 3% annual probability of hurricane damage exceeding $1M. Here are mitigation options and the corresponding premium impact." AIR's models are continuously updated to reflect climate change, new construction, and the latest scientific understanding of natural hazard behavior. While most agents access AIR models indirectly through carrier portals, Verisk has been expanding direct agent access — particularly for larger commercial brokerages that use cat modeling in their risk advisory services.

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Claims Analytics — ISO ClaimSearch

ISO ClaimSearch is the insurance industry's largest claims database — containing over 1.5 billion claims records spanning property, casualty, auto, workers' compensation, and specialty lines. For agents, ClaimSearch provides: claims history reports on individual risks (when quoting a commercial account, what does the claims history look like? Any red flags — frequency of small claims, severity trends, suspicious patterns?), fraud detection (ClaimSearch's predictive models flag claims with characteristics associated with fraud — staged accidents, inflated damages, phantom injuries — helping carriers and agents identify potentially fraudulent claims before they are paid), subrogation identification (when a claim is paid, ClaimSearch analyzes whether another party may be responsible — e.g., a product liability claim where ClaimSearch identifies that the same product has generated claims at other carriers, suggesting a manufacturer defect and a subrogation opportunity), and industry benchmarking (how does a client's claims frequency and severity compare to industry averages for their class of business — informing renewal negotiations and risk management recommendations). For agents, ClaimSearch access is typically through carrier portals that license the data; agencies that write significant premium volumes may qualify for direct access.

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Underwriting Data — LightSpeed & Verisk Business Intel

Verisk provides the underwriting data that carriers use to evaluate risks — and increasingly, agents can access this same data for pre-qualification. LightSpeed is Verisk's small commercial underwriting platform that provides instant risk evaluation for BOP, workers' comp, and commercial auto — agents input basic business information (name, address, industry, revenue, employees) and LightSpeed returns: ISO classification codes, loss cost data, risk scores, and appetite indications from participating carriers. For agents writing small commercial accounts, LightSpeed can dramatically accelerate the quoting process — what previously required manual lookups in classification manuals can now be done in seconds. Verisk Business Intel provides detailed information on commercial entities: business classification (verified industry codes — reducing the risk of misclassification, which is a leading cause of E&O claims), ownership and management, financial stability indicators, regulatory and legal history, and business characteristics (years in operation, employee count, revenue estimates). For agents, this data supports: accurate risk classification (the correct ISO class code for a business with multiple operations), informed coverage recommendations (a business with rapid revenue growth may need higher limits), and risk selection (identifying businesses with characteristics that suggest higher or lower risk).

Verisk for Insurance Agents — Practical Applications

While Verisk is primarily a carrier-facing data company, its products are increasingly accessible to agents — and understanding how to leverage Verisk data is a competitive advantage. Here are the practical applications that matter most for agents:

Pre-Qualifying Commercial Risks

Before submitting a commercial risk to carriers, savvy agents use Verisk data to: verify the business classification (is the client classified correctly? A "restaurant" with 40% bar sales may actually be classified as a bar/tavern — a critical distinction that changes the carrier panel), check claims history (any red flags in the ISO ClaimSearch database that carriers will see?), assess property risk (using aerial imagery to identify roof condition issues, surrounding hazards, or building characteristics that will concern underwriters), and estimate loss costs (using ISO advisory loss costs to provide a preliminary premium indication). Pre-qualifying with Verisk data means the agent only submits risks to carriers that are likely to quote — saving time and increasing hit ratios.

Coverage Gap Analysis & Risk Management

ISO forms and endorsements provide the framework for coverage analysis. An agent who understands ISO forms can: identify coverage gaps by comparing the client's current policy (which endorsements are attached? Which are missing?) against industry standards for their business class, recommend coverage enhancements based on ISO's advisory forms (e.g., the ISO employment-related practices liability endorsement for businesses with growing workforces), and explain coverage in context ("Your CGL policy uses the ISO CG 00 01 form. This covers bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations, but it specifically excludes professional services. For your IT consulting work, you need a separate technology E&O policy."). This level of coverage expertise — grounded in the ISO framework that insurers themselves use — positions the agent as a trusted advisor rather than a quote-delivery service.

Catastrophe Risk Communication

For agents in catastrophe-exposed regions, Verisk's catastrophe modeling data enables informed client conversations: "Your property is in a high-risk wildfire zone with a Verisk FireLine score of 8 out of 10. This means: carriers will likely require mitigation measures (defensible space, ember-resistant vents) before quoting, premiums will be 40-60% higher than a similar property outside the zone, and you may need to access the surplus lines market if standard carriers decline. Here's a mitigation plan that can improve your insurability over the next 12 months." Agents who can have this conversation — grounded in real risk data — are providing value that no online quote comparison tool can match.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Industry-standard data — what carriers see is what you see: Understanding Verisk data means understanding what underwriters are looking at. Agents who can anticipate underwriting concerns and address them proactively have a significant advantage over agents who submit blindly and react to declinations.
Unmatched data breadth and depth: No other company combines ISO forms, catastrophe modeling, aerial imagery, claims history, and business intelligence under one roof. The data integration across Verisk products creates insights that no single-product vendor can match.
Essential for commercial lines expertise: ISO form knowledge is the foundation of commercial insurance competency. Agents who invest in understanding Verisk products are investing in their professional capability — not just buying a software tool.
Increasingly accessible to agents: While Verisk historically served carriers almost exclusively, the trend is toward agent access. Products like LightSpeed and Property Intel are designed with agent workflows in mind.

Cons

Complexity and learning curve: Verisk products are not consumer software — they assume insurance expertise. ISO classification manuals, loss cost tables, and catastrophe model outputs require training and experience to interpret correctly. For new agents, the learning curve is steep.
Cost can be significant for individual agencies: While Verisk's pricing per carrier is massive (enterprise agreements in the millions), agent-level pricing varies. Some products are bundled into carrier relationships; direct access can cost several thousand dollars annually per product — significant for small agencies.
Carrier adoption varies: While virtually all carriers use ISO forms, their adoption of other Verisk products (specific cat models, specific analytics tools) varies. An agent may have access to Verisk data that a particular carrier doesn't use — creating a gap between agent analysis and carrier underwriting.
Data is probabilistic, not deterministic: A Verisk risk score of 75 doesn't mean the risk is "75% bad" — it is a statistical indicator based on correlations. Agents who treat Verisk scores as absolute truth rather than decision support risk making poor judgments.

FAQ

Do I need to buy ISO forms directly from Verisk as an agent?

Most agents access ISO forms and rating information through their carriers or through their agency management system's rating integrations. Direct Verisk subscriptions are typically for agencies that want deeper access — the full commercial lines manual, circulars, and form libraries — beyond what carrier portals provide. For agents focused on personal lines, direct Verisk access is rarely necessary. For commercial lines specialists, direct access can be a competitive advantage — providing form interpretation resources, classification guidance, and loss cost data that support more sophisticated client advisory services.

How does Verisk's aerial imagery compare to Google Earth?

Verisk's aerial imagery is captured specifically for insurance underwriting purposes — higher resolution, more frequent updates (properties in high-risk areas may be imaged annually), and captured at oblique angles (not just straight down) so that roof condition and building characteristics can be assessed. Google Earth imagery is lower resolution, updated less frequently, and captured at different angles. Verisk also applies AI analysis to its imagery — automatically detecting roof material, condition, and hazards — that Google does not provide. For insurance purposes, Verisk imagery is the standard; Google Earth is a useful reference but not a substitute.

Is Verisk data admissible in court for coverage disputes?

ISO policy forms — published and maintained by Verisk — are widely cited in insurance coverage litigation. Courts regularly reference ISO forms and circulars when interpreting policy language, because ISO forms represent the industry standard. However, Verisk's analytical products (risk scores, cat model outputs, predictive models) are generally not admissible as evidence in coverage disputes — they are underwriting tools, not legal determinations of coverage. Agents should never represent a Verisk risk score as a guarantee of coverage or a substitute for legal review of policy language.