Reinsurance

What is Reinsurance?
• Reinsurance is a form of insurance. A reinsurance
contract is legally an insurance contract.
• The reinsurer agrees to indemnify the cedant insurer for
a specified share of specified types of insurance claims
paid by the cedant for a single insurance policy or for a
specified set of policies.
• The terminology used is that the reinsurer assumes the
liability ceded on the subject policies.
• The cession, or share of claims to be paid by the
reinsurer, may be defined on a proportional share basis
(a specified percentage of each claim) or on an excess
basis (the part of each claim, or aggregation of claims,
above some specified dollar amount).
 Retrocession
• A reinsurer may also reduce its assumed
reinsurance risk by purchasing
reinsurance coverage from other
reinsurers, both domestic and
international; such a cession is called a
retrocession.
 Types of Reinsurance companies
• Direct writers,which have their own employed
account executives who produce business, and
• Broker companies or brokers, which receive
businessthrough reinsurance intermediaries.
• Some direct writers do receive a part of their
business through brokers, and likewise, some
broker reinsurers assume some business
directly from the ceding companies.
The Functions of Reinsurance
• On a long-term basis, reinsurance cannot
be expected to make bad business good.
But it does provide the following direct
assistance to the cedant.
• Capacity
• Stabilization
• Financial Results Management
• Management Advice
 The Forms of Reinsurance
• Facultative Certificates
– Proportional basis- the reinsurer reimburses a fixed percentage of each
claim on the subject policy.
– Excess basis- the reinsurer reimburses a share
– (up to some specified dollar limit) of the part of each claim on the
subject policy that lies above some fixed dollar attachment point (net
retention).
• Facultative Automatic Agreements or Programs
– It may be thought of as a collection of facultative certificates
underwritten simultaneously.
– cover on either a proportional or excess basis.
– usually written to cover new or special programs marketed by the
cedant, and the reinsurer may work closely with the cedant to design the
primary underwriting and pricing guidelines.
– written on a fixed cost basis, without the retrospective premium
adjustments or variable ceding commissions sometimes used for
treaties
 Treaties
• A treaty reinsures a specified part of the loss exposure for a set of insurance policies
for a specified coverage period.
• The claims covered may be either those occurring during the treaty term or those
occurring on policies written during the term.
• Treaty Proportional Covers
– A quota-share treaty reinsures a fixed percentage of each subject policy.
– The reinsurer usually receives the same share of premium as claims, and pays
the cedant a ceding commission commensurate with the primary production and
handling costs
• Treaty Excess Covers
• reinsures, up to a limit, a share of the part of each claim that is in excess of some
specified attachment point (cedant’s retention).
– per-risk excess
– per-occurrence excess
• Catastrophe Covers
• Aggregate Excess, or Stop Loss Covers
• Finite, or Nontraditional, Reinsurance Covers
• The word “finite” means that the reinsurer’s assumed risk is significantly reduced by
various contractual conditions, sometimes called “structure.”
• main function is to manage financial results.
• Financial Accounting Standards Board issued FAS 113 in 1992.
• Example loss portfolio transfer
 The Cost of Reinsurance to the
Cedant
• The Reinsurer’s Margin
• Brokerage Fee
• Lost Investment Income
• Additional Cedant Expenses
• Reciprocity
 REINSURANCE PRICING
• General Considerations
• difficult and sometimes impossible to get
credible loss experience
• low claim frequency and high severity nature of
many reinsurance coverages,
• Lengthy time delays between the occurrence,
reporting, and settlement of many covered loss
events,
• leveraged effect of inflation upon excess claims.
 Reinsurance Pricing Method
• The pricing formula a reinsurance actuary would use depends upon the
reinsurer’s pricing philosophy, information availability, and complexity of the
coverage.
• A Flat Rate Reinsurance Pricing Formula
RP = PVRELC
(1-RCR-RBF)X(1-RIXL)X(1-RTER)
• Where: RP = reinsurance premium
• PVRELC = PV of RELC
• RELC = reinsurer’s estimate of the reinsurance expected
• loss cost,
• RL = reinsurance loss
• RCR = reinsurance ceding commission rate (as a percent of RP)
• RBF = reinsurance brokerage fee (as a percent of RP)
• RIXL = reinsurer’s internal expense loading (as a percent of RP net of RCR
and RBF)
• RTER = reinsurer’s target economic return (as a percent of reinsurance
pure premium.
 Example
• PVRELC = $100,000 (calculated by
actuarial analysis and formulas)
• RTER = 20% (The reinsurer believes this
is appropriate to compensate for the
uncertainty and risk level of the coverage.)
• RIXL = 10% (The reinsurer’s allocation for
this type of business.)
• RCR = 25% (specified in the contract)
• RBF = 5% (specified in the contract)
 Requirements of IRDA on
reinsurance
• Every insurance company shall draw a program
of reinsurance duly mentioning the name of
reinsurer(s) and file with the IRDA at least 45
days before the commencement of each
financial year.
• A compulsory cession by the insurers carrying
on general insurance business at 20 percent.
• IRDA requires that reinsurance be ceded to only
those reinsurers who enjoy rating of at least BBB
(with Standard & Poor) or equivalent rating of
any other international rating agency over a
period of the past five years.
 Indian Scenario
• Primary insurers and the sole secondary insurer (GIC) seeks re
insurance support substantially from developed RI markets directly
or through intermediaries (brokers)
– high value property
– marine hull
– Engg
– Aviation
– satellite insurances
• Extending RI support marginally (but GIC increasingly) to the
developing world, including retrocession acceptances.
• GIC also has strategic relationship through
– Subsidiaries
– ownership arrangements
– delegated underwriting authorities
• Direct insurers have foreign branches