Systems and methods are provided for evaluating asset risks using categories of primary loan underwriting factors associated with a pre-selected number of variables. An initial handle-based tree data structure is created based upon primary loan underwriting factors associated with a loan and includes a plurality of handle cells that segment loans according to values of the pre-selected variables. The initial handle-based tree data structure is modified by combining handle cells containing least significant splits and rank ordering of the modified handle-based tree data structure is performed to segment portfolio data.