Homeowners across the country are increasingly adopting smart home devices with hopes of protecting their homes and adding convenience. At the same time, preventable homeowners’ insurance claims, such as water damage from leaky pipes, are becoming more frequent and costly1. To address this issue, Nationwide, one of the country’s largest home insurers, and Resideo Technologies (NYSE: REZI), the global provider of Honeywell Home smart thermostats and First Alert solutions that provide home comfort, life safety and security to over 150 million homes, are partnering to reshape the future of protection for homeowners.
By combining Nationwide’s breadth of coverages and expertise with Resideo’s expansive smart home solution footprint and national professional installation relationships, U.S. homeowners will be able to leverage tech-enabled prevention capabilities to help avert unexpected damage and associated expenses with their homes. Homeowners that take advantage of the preferred device packages, which will be announced in early 2024, may also be eligible for a discount on their homeowners insurance through Nationwide, helping to offset the cost of smart home solution purchases and installation.
According to Nationwide’s 2023 Agency Forward survey, homeowners’ leading reason for purchasing smart home products is to reduce anxiety (44 percent). However, despite water and fire damage serving as the highest non-weather related claims perils for homeowners, more than 90 percent of those surveyed do not have smart water leak sensors and almost 80 percent do not have monitored smoke or fire hazard devices in their homes – a concerning protection gap.
“Smart home technology presents a tremendous opportunity to elevate protection for our customers by transitioning from a reactive approach to a proactive one, enabling us to predict and prevent losses before they occur,” said Beth Riczko, president of P&C Personal Lines at Nationwide. “Nationwide is proud to be a leader in smart home protection and to partner with Resideo, which has a broad and innovative portfolio of smart home solutions, and a vast customer base that can help us both accelerate learning and value creation for our customers.”
Dana Huth, Resideo’s chief revenue officer, agrees. “We are committed to protecting what matters most and creating new forms of value for our customers. Partnering with Nationwide, who has a similar focus and aligned mission, will be an accelerant to meaningful savings of time, effort and money for U.S. homeowners and residents,” he said.
Leaders from both companies advise to watch for interesting applications of insights, collaborations across their respective ecosystem partners, and new experiences that lead to smarter, safer home ownership.
1 2022 U.S. Home Trends Report, Lexis Nexis
