4WARN Insights Blog Hi, we're 4WARN, and this is our first blog post, which serves as an FAQ of sorts. We’ve got some great customers and some early press exposure, but you may not know who we are. If that’s the case, this is for you.
Why do we exist?
We’re committed to protecting businesses (and by extension consumers) from the tremendous economic impact of some insidious new methods of instigating insurance claims. These modern day ambulance chasing practices siphon millions of dollars from the traditional risk management ecosystem.
Although insurance companies are prime targets, companies in the food service, health care, retail, construction, and transportation industries are also harmed. As is everyone who buys insurance to protect their family from catastrophe.
This new model of claims instigation, powered by technology, drives up everyone’s costs and lines the pockets of opportunists who contribute no true value to anyone. The practice has driven good insurers out of business, leaving their policyholders (all of us) in an expensive bind.
What do you mean by modern day ambulance chasing?
Although we deeply respect the practice of law and fair compensation for injured parties, some opportunists are grotesquely twisting the system to their own ends. They are practicing tech-fueled, money-motivated hyperlitigation.
What do you mean by tech-fueled?
Opportunists are using the newest internet marketing tools to exploit particular companies, carriers, industries, injuries, ailments, courts, judges, laws, loopholes, and locales sheerly for the payoff. Claims and lawsuits are soaring in number and verdict size. It’s money first, justice a distant second with little regard for victims.
How do you protect insurers and others?
We provide validated technology that detects, scores, and resists emerging hyperlitigation threats. 4WARN provides detailed analysis, reports, and dashboards on the front end and sophisticated algorithms on the back end, built using billions of data points, artificial intelligence, and analytics that no one else has developed.
Who is vulnerable to hyperlitigation?
Ultimately, any business. For example, we work with a logistics/shipping company that is being forced to reroute its 18-wheelers throughout the United States because certain locales are too “hot” from a litigation standpoint to drive through due to fraudulent lawsuits. That’s not how our the legal industry is supposed to work.
Are the opportunists those lawyers we see on billboards and TV ads?
Although some TV lawyers are just enterprising people with a sense of humor, others are entrenched in a new form of fraudulent ambulance chasing. Their “promise” goes way beyond a clever ad. Behind the scenes, some big firms and other opportunists are using the same sophisticated digital tools, data science, and AI techniques to drum up claims that the most sophisticated e-commerce companies use to sell goods. Some opportunists even masquerade as insurance claim departments to trap unwitting customers.
How does hyperlitigation hurt consumers?
It drives up insurance rates (a big inflation factor) and puts honest insurers out of business. If current trends hold, insurance (for our homes, cars, businesses, and health) will be unsustainable.
How exactly does 4WARN help?
Our Solutions and Services can help clients:
- Detect and score emerging threats, i.e., tech-fueled claim/lawsuit proliferation.
- Respond to threats through tactical defensive actions.
- Fortify organizations by building digital moats around their businesses.
What does that look like in real life?
Here’s a basic example: In our customized reports, you’ll see a 4WARN “Tech-Enabled” Risk Score™. It’s your overall risk of facing a barrage of dubious claims or litigation filings. You’ll be scored on a 0-to-100 scale based on the level of potential risk in your industry and segment.
Your risk will reflect the demographics of the opportunists, the effectiveness of their targeting, the power they are wielding, and your inherent vulnerability.
Who are the people behind 4WARN?
We are a group of tech experts who have spent more than 80 collective years focused on big data in the insurance, health care, and high tech industries. 4WARN was co-founded by me (Todd Kozikowski). In addition to being the CEO of the company, I’m a voracious technophile, passionate about turning problems into solutions and solutions into companies. I attended Bates College and earned degrees in physics, astronomy, and mathematics with advanced studies from the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Harvard.
My longtime friend Joe Petrelli has been instrumental in validating my research. Joe is an insurance expert with over 40 years in the industry. He’s a well-known advisor to companies throughout the property and casualty insurance sector. He is also founder and president of Demotech, Inc., a financial analysis firm providing financial stability ratings for insurers for decades. Demotech is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO). Demotech was the first company to have its rating process formally reviewed and accepted by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD. Joe earned his MBA from Ohio State University.
Advisor
What prompted you to create 4WARN?
Joe called me a few years ago and told me he was deeply concerned about a flurry of insurance companies – six in fact – being driven out of business in Florida, whose insurance community was in chaos. He thought there might be a hidden technology factor.
We discovered a full-blown subterranean “industry” around claims instigation and litigation. The more we learned, the more concerned we became. We have since been working to solve the problem. We want to help and are convinced we can.
Please contact us to learn more, and follow this blog for ongoing updates and new research as we discover more.
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