Amica Insurance Partners with Flume to Launch Smart Leak Detection for Homeowners

Amica Insurance is scaling its preventative technology strategy by offering no-cost smart leak detection hardware to eligible policyholders through an expanded partnership with Flume. For carriers and MGAs, this move highlights the accelerating shift from reactive indemnity to proactive risk mitigation, targeting non-weather water damage—a category where average claims now exceed $21,000 per incident.

What was announced

Amica Insurance has launched a new program that provides eligible home policyholders in participating markets with a Flume Smart Home Water Monitor at no cost. The initiative includes the hardware itself and three years of professional leak monitoring services. The technology is designed for ease of use, as the sensor can be installed on an existing water meter in minutes without the need for professional plumbing modifications or pipe cutting.

The program addresses a significant pain point in the homeowners' insurance sector. Internal data from Amica reveals that one in every 60 policyholders experiences a non-weather-related water loss annually. These incidents, which include frozen pipes, overflowing tubs, and dripping faucets, represent some of the most frequent and expensive claims for the carrier. By providing real-time monitoring, the program aims to catch these issues before they escalate into catastrophic property damage.

Flume’s system functions by continuously analyzing water activity and transmitting data to a mobile application. When the system detects abnormal usage—ranging from small, continuous leaks like running toilets to sudden, major plumbing failures—it sends an immediate alert to the homeowner. According to a study of insurance carriers, homes equipped with Flume technology saw a 60% reduction in the frequency of water damage claims and a 24% reduction in claim severity. Furthermore, the data suggests that 83% of detected leaks would have persisted for a much longer period without the sensor, with 77.5% of issues being identified within the first 24 hours.

"At Amica, we're committed to helping our customers protect what matters most," said Amica Chairman, President and CEO Ted Shallcross. "By offering this service to our policyholders, we're providing a simple, proactive way to identify potential water problems early."

Ted Shallcross, Chairman, President and CEO of Amica.

The companies involved

Amica Insurance, headquartered in Lincoln, Rhode Island, is a national insurer known for its presence in the personal lines market, including auto, home, and life insurance. As a major player in the U.S. property and casualty space, the company has increasingly focused on integrating technology to improve loss ratios and enhance customer engagement. Amica’s move to subsidize IoT hardware reflects a broader trend among established carriers to move beyond the traditional "repair and replace" model toward a "predict and prevent" philosophy.

Flume is an insurtech and water management company that specializes in high-definition water data. The company’s technology analyzes trillions of data points annually from hundreds of thousands of homes across the United States. By providing granular insights into household consumption, Flume helps both homeowners and insurers understand water usage patterns and identify risks in real-time. The company operates through its digital platform and mobile app, positioning itself as a key partner for carriers looking to reduce the volatility of water-related losses. Flume is led by Founder and CEO Eric Adler, who has focused the company’s growth on the intersection of utility management and insurance risk reduction.

What FF News has reported before

Amica Insurance has been active in adopting advanced technology to streamline its operations and improve risk assessment. FF News previously reported on the carrier’s efforts to modernize its internal processes in the article Amica Insurance Adopts ZestyAI’s Agentic AI to Slash Regulatory Research Time by 95%. That partnership focused on utilizing artificial intelligence to handle complex regulatory research, demonstrating Amica's broader commitment to integrating specialized tech vendors into its value chain. This latest expansion with Flume suggests a multi-front approach to digital transformation, moving from back-office AI efficiency to front-end, hardware-enabled loss prevention at the policyholder's property.

What this means from an insurtech perspective

This partnership signals a maturing of the "Connected Home" segment within the insurance value chain. For years, the industry has debated whether the cost of subsidizing IoT hardware is offset by the reduction in claims; Amica’s decision to provide three years of monitoring for free suggests the actuarial evidence is now heavily in favor of the hardware. This puts significant pressure on incumbent vendors and traditional carriers who rely solely on historical data rather than real-time telemetry. From an underwriting perspective, the ability to confirm the presence of active leak detection could soon become a prerequisite for preferred pricing. It also raises questions about data ownership and how carriers will integrate these trillions of water usage data points into future pricing models and risk appetite frameworks.