Articles by L.S. Howard

The Care and Feeding of Property-Catastrophe Models

Executive summary: The key to getting useful model results is working with models that fit specific underwriting needs and making sure the models are regularly updated while employing qualitative analysis (in addition to the models’ quantitative analysis), say experts from …

Reinsurers’ Performance Keeps Improving on Underwriting Profits, ROE: Gallagher Re

Reinsurers reported “a robust increase” in their capital base, improved underwriting profits as well as higher returns on equity and investment income, according to a Gallagher Re report. The reinsurance industry’s underlying ROE improved markedly, which has been building on …

Diverging Cyber Cat Model Results Challenge Underwriters’ Risk Analysis: Guy Carpenter

Significant progress has been made in advancing vendors’ cyber catastrophe models, but a notable degree of variability exists across model outputs, which can pose a challenge to insurance and reinsurance companies as they formulate their views of risk, according to …

Reinsurers’ Cyber Rates Expected to Rise as They Seek to Regain Profitability: S&P

More cyber reinsurance rate increases can be expected as reinsurers seek to regain underwriting profits in their cyber portfolios, according to a report published by S&P Global Ratings. “Reinsurers had a difficult 2022 due to low profitability and even underwriting …

Munich Re Again Tops List of 50 Largest Reinsurers With Swiss Re at No. 2: AM Best

Munich Re holds onto the top spot in AM Best’s annual ranking of the top 50 global reinsurance groups for 2022, with Swiss Re coming in as the second-largest reinsurer — for the third year in a row. These two …

Conditions Are Challenging, Claims Are Elevated, but Reinsurers’ Profits Return: Reports

Despite extremely challenging conditions, with persistent and elevated claims activity, the global reinsurance segment returned an underwriting profit in 2022, according to an AM Best report. “Reinsurers generally have realigned their risk profiles and are in a strong position to …

Hedge Fund Manager Loeb Agrees to Hold Off Attempts to Take SiriusPoint Private

Hedge Fund Manager Daniel S. Loeb has agreed he will not make further attempts to take SiriusPoint private for two more years. SiriusPoint and Loeb, who has about a 9.5% shareholding in the Bermuda-based specialty insurer and reinsurer, have entered …

Severe Convective Storms Top Insured Natural Disaster Losses in H1: Swiss Re

Global natural catastrophes cost insurers US$50 billion in the first half, (H1 2022: $48 billion), with most of the losses stemming from severe convective storms, according to Swiss Re. “Severe convective storms – storms associated with thunder, lightning, heavy rain, …

Specialty P/C Insurers Outperform Their U.S. Peers: Report

U.S. property/casualty insurers that focused on difficult to place risks distanced themselves from their peers in key metrics measuring earnings, underwriting profitability, balance sheet growth and other indicators of success, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Kinsale Insurance Co., the …

Diverging Cyber Cat Model Results Challenge Underwriters’ Risk Analysis: Guy Carpenter

Significant progress has been made in advancing vendor’s cyber catastrophe models, but a notable degree of variability exists across model outputs, which can pose a challenge to insurance and reinsurance companies as they formulate their views of risk, according to …