WHEATON, Ill., November 4, 2005—Insurers using farm insurance programs developed by the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) will soon have access to a Web-based farm property valuation service.
At no additional charge, AAIS will provide insurers that use its Farmowners or Farm Properties programs access to the Farm and Ranch Estimator, a Web-based application for valuing farm dwellings and outbuildings developed by e2Value, Inc. (www.e2value.com), Stamford, Conn. Access to the Farm and Ranch Estimator will be provided through AAISdirect, AAIS’s own service for providing desktop access to forms, manuals, bulletins, and other information over the Internet. (AAIS farm affiliates will be notified when the e2Value service is accessible through AAISdirect.)
AAIS is a national advisory organization that develops policy forms and rating information used by more than 600 property/casualty insurers through the U.S. e2Value specializes in providing Internet applications for estimating values for residential, commercial and farm structures.
Property valuation is uniquely challenging for farm insurers because of the variety of structures on the typical farm and the differing conditions of their upkeep. The Farm and Ranch Estimator allows users to value both dwellings and farm structures within one valuation tool, and it allows users to determine either a replacement cost or actual cash value for a building.
The application incorporates cost data for major components of construction–walls, roofs, plumbing, and HVAC–as well as agricultural structures and fixtures, such as corn cribs, silos, slurry tanks, generators, scales, and specialized equipment for livestock.
“The greatest challenges to effective farm valuation are the many different types of buildings a farm can have, and the wide variety of fixtures within those buildings,” says Todd Rissel, Chairman and CEO of e2Value, Inc. “Given the diversity associated with farm property, it is important to have current and exceptional information available and easily accessible for every type of farm.”
“Other methods we’ve used did not have the breadth of selection of building types that e2Value offers,” says Sherry Taylor, Director of Farm Lines Underwriting for SECURA Insurance, Appleton, Wis., which uses the Farm and Ranch Estimator. “We expect e2Value to provide a more consistent method of valuation across our book of business.”
“We are pleased to be able to enhance our farm products by making this service available to our affiliates,” says Joyce Tignino, AAIS Vice President of Marketing and Industry Relations.
For more information on affiliating with AAIS for use of its Farmowners or Farm Properties programs, contact Rick Maka, Director of Marketing, at rickm@AAISonline.com or by calling 800/564-AAIS. For more information about e2value, visit www.e2value.com, or contact sales@e2value.com or 888-371-2788.
