Trees provide shade, aesthetics, and environmental benefits, but they can also pose risks to homes when poorly maintained, structurally unsound, or in hazardous locations. Insurers must evaluate these risks consis tently to determine potential liability and preventive measures.
This document provides insurance assessors with guidelines to assess visible tree-related risks around residential properties. It supports consistent evaluations that inform underwriting, claims, and mitigation strategies. The guidelines align with arboriculture standards (ISA Best Management Practices), wildfire defensible space principles, and industry risk assessment protocols. This document seeks to counteract the use of distance-based methods to assess residential tree risk (i.e., the use of aerial imagery or drones) which, although perhaps efficient from the perspective of the insurance industry’s bottom line, inadequately and unsystematically determine hazard potential. Unnecessarily removing or pruning a tree results in a decrease of ecosystem benefits – including visual aesthetics, storm buffer, and property value – provided by the tree. The guidelines presented here:
• Provide insurers with a consistent framework to identify tree hazards.
• Enable insurers to make informed underwriting and claims decisions.
• Guide policyholders toward risk reduction actions that lower losses.
- Arboriculture