Today’s podcast carries on where we left off after the State of the Reinsurance Market Special Episode which was released after the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous of 2023.
At Monte Carlo what everyone said they wanted after the great re-set of a year ago was orderliness.
Buyers and sellers alike wanted a period of rational calm after the storm which could be used to clear some of the debris and to rebuild strained relationships.
And calm and rationality is what everybody got.
Reinsurance capital, profitability and crucially, confidence all recovered and we ended with a largely flat renewal overall.
The aim of this podcast is to see how this bodes for the year ahead and the longer-term strategic direction of the reinsurance market for those who work with it, buy from it and invest in it.
The big question is how long can the good times last for the newly-re-set and now highly profitable reinsurance world?
Have reinsurers hauled themselves up to a peak, only to start sliding quickly down the other rockface, or have they scaled up the side of a ridge onto a new highly profitable plateau upon which they will stay encamped for as long as they can?
To help me answer this, I have been able to speak to representatives from three of the top four reinsurance broking groups.
David Priebe, Chairman of Guy Carpenter (pictured left) and James Vickers Chairman of Gallagher Re International (middle) are two of the longest-serving senior executives in the business and David Flandro Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at Howden Tiger (right) is one of the sector’s longest-tenured analysts.
They have all been providing insightful commentary on the industry for longer than I have been an insurance journalist and I have been interviewing them all for almost 20 years.
I really had fun with these three interviews and the subsequent time spent blending this highly accomplished and eloquent trio’s thoughts together.
It was a bit more work that usual, but I think it’s good value-added exercise and I hope you find it as useful as I did.
NOTES
Here are links to the reports and commentary I mentioned:
Howden Tiger - A New World
https://www.howdengroupholdings.com/sites/g/files/mwfley1156/files/2023-12/a-new-world-2024.pdf
Gallagher Re – What a Difference a Year Makes
https://www.ajg.com/gallagherre/news-and-insights/2024/january/what-a-difference-a-year-makes/
Guy Carpenter - January 1, 2024 Reinsurance Renewals Reflect a Motivated Market with Increasing Capital
https://www.guycarp.com/company/news-and-events/news/press-releases/january-2024-renewals.html
David Flandro mentioned Charlie Goldie, CUO of MS Re. He appeared prominently in both the 2022 and 2023 Monte Carlo Special Episodes – check the 2023 one out here:
https://thevoiceofinsurance.podbean.com/e/special-ep-the-state-of-reinsurance-2023/
ABBREVIATIONS
WACC = Weighted Average Cost of Capital
TIV = Total Insured Values
SPONSOR
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com/
Ep208 Gilbert Harrap CEO InsurX: Building a new Insurance Utility
Special Ep David Butler of VIPR: Don't install tech - solve real-world problems
Ep207 Scott Egan SiriusPoint: Chasing the 1%
Ep206 Duncan Dale CEO Dale Underwriting Partners: Excited by the Opportunities
Ep205 Serene Davis & James Orchard of QBE: Stars aligning for Innovation
Ep204 What do Teenagers Think about Insurance?
Ep203 Greg Hendrick Vantage Risk: Best Talent, Best Insights, Best Decisions
Ep202 Kate Markham Hiscox: Do More, Do it Better, Do it Cheaper
Special Ep Guillaume Bonnissent of Quotech: Solving pain points you didn't know you had
Ep201 Natalia Dorfman & James Kench of Kita: Gross Written Carbon
Ep200 Renaud Guidée CEO AXA XL Re: Much more than just a transaction
Ep199 Kera McDonald Swiss Re Corporate Solutions: Trendspotting and Avoiding Passivity
Special Ep Mike Steel Moody's RMS: Answering a whole new set of questions
Ep198 Tom Clementi Pool Re: Taking risk off the State
Ep197 Robert Wiest CEO MS Re: A good plan and the capital to execute it
Special Ep: Ian Summers AdvantageGo and Jeff Cohen Zywave: Let the client choose what they want
Ep196 Melissa Collett CEO Insurtech UK: A sector in its own right
Ep195 Adrian Cox: Beating Inertia
Special Ep: Navigating the DDM switch-off with Paul Templar CEO of VIPR
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Aligned Money Show
Gorse Culture PODcast : The H.R. Detective Agency!
HCI Leadership Revolution
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money