Insurance Reinsurance

In 1994 a Reinsurance Working Party was set up by AIDA (Association Internationale de Droit des Assurances) with the aim of producing a series of comparative reports considering how particular aspects of reinsurance law operate in a range of jurisdictions.

"Risk being its raw material, insurance has developed various techniques of valuation and risk transfer. Nowadays, these techniques - and first of all reinsurance, the favourite way of transferring risk- are entirely reassessed considering the development of Corporate Finance theory. Therefore, the approach retained here, originally for the actuarial course at Ensae, Paris may surprise some readers and students as it proposes a extended view of risk. We cover not only the mathematical aspects of Risk Management but also other fields relevant for Risk Management from economy or finance. We aim here at making bridges between all these fields through practical application to cat and life risk-management."--

There may be some readers of this book who are expecting a sort of Mrs Beeton of reinsurance, whose indications if carefully followed will ensure the satisfactory outcome of any reinsurance operation undertaken. They will, I fear, be disappointed for reinsurance is first and foremost a commercial enterprise, whose successful conduct depends upon so much that cannot be written in books or committed to paper. Above all else, it depends upon people and on the personalities of people as much as on their technical skills. Most reinsurers are born and only some are made, but none the less for either sort this book will be of inestimable benefit as a guide to the principles that lie behind the transaction of a business at once as complex and widespread as reinsurance is by its very nature. One of the main characteristics of this highly specialized business is the infinite variety of situations to which the reinsurer is called upon to adapt his business methods making any standardization of practice possible only on a broad, as opposed to a detailed, basis. This renders any attempt to encompass in one book all the practical alternatives and differences in approach to technical reinsurance problems a virtual impossibility.

First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

Reinsurance is an invisible service industry which enables insurance companies to insure more risks and to make better use of their resources. Until recently, reinsurers were only known to a small minority outside the insurance community. Major disasters, especially those caused by natural catastrophes, have increasingly brought the industry into the spotlight. Yet what is perceived today by a wider public still only represents a fraction of the industry, and the mechanisms of reinsurance to deal with global risk exposure are virtually unknown. The Value of Risk provides an overview of how today's reinsurance industry developed. It investigates for the first time the role of reinsurers in a changing risk, economic, and market environment. Harold James explains the fundamental principles of insuring and outlines the evolution of the industry in his introductory essay. In Part I, Peter Borscheid describes in detail the global spread of modern insurance, which emerged in the late eighteenth century amidst ideas of rationalism which attempted to quantify risk in monetary terms, the setbacks it encountered, and how the market environment changed over time. Professional reinsurance emerged with the rise in insured risks in the industrialising mid-nineteenth century. By the time the San Francisco Earthquake happened in 1906 the reinsurance industry had become well established and showed a remarkable ability to deal collectively with the catastrophe. David Gugerli describes in Part II how the industry as a whole dealt with such challenges but also the numerous exposures to a changing risk landscape. Against this background, in Part III Tobias Straumann examines the history of the Swiss Reinsurance Company, founded in 1863, providing a fascinating example of how professional risk taking was developed over the last 150 years.

This practical guide offers a useful introduction to reinsurance, taking you step by step through the associated issues you really need to know about. An introduction is provided, setting the scene for further chapters on key topics such as the formation of agreements, terms, rights and obligations. The book covers the following areas: Nature of Reinsurance, Formation of Reinsurance, Agreements, Utmost Good Faith, Terms of Reinsurance Agreements, Rights and Obligations of the Parties, Follow the Settlements and Follow the Fortunes, Claims, Intermediaries, Jurisdiction and Applicable Law, Arbitration.

Reinsurance is an important production factor of non-life insurance. The efficiency and the capacity of the reinsurance market directly regulate those of insurance markets. The purpose of this book is to provide a concise introduction to risk theory, as well as to its main application procedures to reinsurance. The first part of the book covers risk theory. It presents the most prevalent model of ruin theory, as well as a discussion on insurance premium calculation principles and the mathematical tools that enable portfolios to be ordered according to their risk levels. The second part describes the institutional context of reinsurance. It first strives to clarify the legal nature of reinsurance transactions. It describes the structure of the reinsurance market and then the different legal and technical features of reinsurance contracts, known as reinsurance ‘treaties’ by practitioners. The third part creates a link between the theories presented in the first part and the practice described in the second one. Indeed, it sets out, mostly through examples, some methods for pricing and optimizing reinsurance. The authors aim is to apply the formalism presented in the first part to the institutional framework given in the second part. It is reassuring to find such a relationship between approaches seemingly abstract and solutions adopted by practitioners. Risk Theory and Reinsurance is mainly aimed at master's students in actuarial science but will also be useful for practitioners wishing to revive their knowledge of risk theory or to quickly learn about the main mechanisms of reinsurance.