A Swinging Pendulum: U.S. Tort Reform

Contributor: Art Gang, SVP, Associate General Counsel, PartnerRe
Date: 10/20/2009
The recent economic downturn and changes in political administrations have led to attempts to roll back tort reforms. We examine the current landscape, and how an encroachment could impact how re/insurers underwrite and assess liability coverage and exposure.
Tags: Litigation, U.S.

Happening in Cat

Contributor: Ted Dziurman, Head of Catastrophe, PartnerRe
Date: 10/20/2009
Ted Dziurman, Head of Catastrophe at PartnerRe, gives his views on the 2010 market outlook and introduces PartnerRe’s pioneering new versions of the CatFocusR earthquake and European windstorm models.
Tags: Non-specific, Catastrophe perils, Pricing & models

Preparing for the Unexpected

Contributor: Daniel Dubischar, Group Actuary Life, PartnerRe; Esther Schuetz, Team Leader COE Mortality, PartnerRe
Date: 10/20/2009
Life insurers routinely model the sensitivities of risk factors to the external environment. Extreme events represent an important new dimension that must also be factored-in. We look at some extreme events and ask what the life sector can do to prepare for the unexpected.
Tags: Life & Health, Non-specific

The Right Kind of Regulation

Contributor: Patrick Thiele, President & CEO
Date: 10/20/2009
Regulation is coming to the re/insurance industry whether we like it or not. CEO Patrick Thiele gives it a cautious welcome arguing that the right kind of regulation should mean a more secure, more cost-effective form of risk transfer for cedants.
Tags: Non-specific, Regulation

Poised for Prominence in Life

Contributor: Joanna Atkin, Life Pricing Actuary for the UK & Ireland, PartnerRe, John O’Neill, Head Life Market UK & Ireland, PartnerRe
Date: 8/31/2009
Critical illness insurance is an important and appealing life protection cover, offering policyholders the comforting reassurance of an immediate lump sum payment on diagnosis of a defined critical illness or need to undergo a defined serious medical procedure. Mortgage related sales have been particularly well received.
Tags: Europe, Life & Health

Risk Modeling Lessons of the Financial Crisis

Contributor: Dom Tobey, Deputy Head Global Specialty Lines, PartnerRe
Date: 8/31/2009
When one considers the role that risk modeling played in the roots of the financial crisis, there were very clearly a number of common technical flaws in the models. However, the way the models were used and managed played a far more important role than the technical problems themselves. While these issues centered around investment banking activities, the broad lessons learned are equally applicable to insurance and reinsurance.
Tags: Non-specific, Risk management & reserving, Capital markets & structured products, Claims, Pricing & models

U.S. Casualty: Storm Clouds on the Horizon

Contributor: Dick Sanford, EVP and Head of Specialty Casualty, PartnerRe U.S.; David Durbin, SVP and Head of R&D and Risk Modeling, PartnerRe U.S.; Wayne Hommes, EVP and Risk and Capital Management, PartnerRe U.S.; Tom Smith, SVP, and Head of Actuarial Pricing, PartnerRe U.S.
Date: 8/31/2009
Higher capital costs, low interest rates, the looming threat of inflation and the potential rolling back of U.S. tort reforms can be individually problematic for long-tailed casualty lines of business. Collectively their occurrence can be market changing – and not for the better. Indeed, the potential confluence of these factors looks like they’re building up into a potential re/insurance version of “the perfect storm”.
Tags: Property, Casualty, U.S.

Why an Acquisition Makes Sense

Contributor: Patrick Thiele, President & CEO
Date: 8/31/2009
Insurers and reinsurers today face a more uncertain environment than ever before. Just as volatile capital markets, deep recession and rising inflation are squeezing access to capital, changes in reinsurance buying behavior, lower risk-free rates in government securities, the uncertainty of loss trends and increased regulation, threaten to depress reinsurers’ growth and profitability.
Tags: Non-specific, CEO commentary