Reinsurance Archives - Retirement Income Journal

Cross-Fire: NAIC and Fed Economists Release Same-Day Zingers

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Mar 26, 2025

On March 21, Federal Reserve economists published research warning about increases in high-risk lending by U.S. life insurers. On the same day, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners asked...

Published April 2025

Open Letter to NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force

By Peter Gould Sat, Mar 1, 2025

'You encourage and abet the whack-a-mole behavior of insurers that regulators have tolerated in the industry—to the detriment of consumers... I don't want to be left holding the (empty)...

Published March 2025

Open Letter to Scott O’Neal, Actuary, NAIC

By Larry Rybka Tue, Feb 25, 2025

'In the 12 years since , insurance regulators have done little other than allow this situation to now mushroom,' writes Rybka, a prominent...

Published March 2025

A Flood of ‘Flow Reinsurance’

By Kerry Pechter Sat, Feb 1, 2025

Flow reinsurance involves the ongoing, immediate transfer of risks from a life insurer to a reinsurer as soon as annuities are issued. Life/annuity companies have used flow reinsurance for...

Published February 2025

‘Asset-intensive’ annuity reinsurance has NAIC’s attention

By Kerry Pechter Mon, Nov 4, 2024

At an Oct. 24 meeting, the NAIC's Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF) continued to hammer out a new guideline for 'asset adequacy testing' of offshore reinsurance reserves. Starting in...

Published November 2024

US life/annuity insurers cede $1.74 trillion to reinsurers, 2016-23

By Editorial Staff Wed, Sep 4, 2024

New capital keeps flowing into the reinsurance segment, primarily via reinsurers owned by investment managers focused on annuity business, AM Best analysts write. These newer entrants co-insure assets that...

Published September 2024

British regulators scrutinize ‘FundedRe’ in pension deals

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Aug 1, 2024

The Prudential Regulatory Authority, the Bank of England's financial regulatory arm, told UK life insurers in late July that it has concerns about the use of 'funded reinsurance' (FundedRe)...

Published August 2024

Offshore Regulatory Arbitrage by US Insurers Explained

By Editorial Staff Sat, Jun 29, 2024

In a recent report, Moody's analysts showed that the accounting 'regime in Bermuda tends to allow for a higher discount rate than other jurisdictions' and this 'directly impacts the...

Published July 2024

The case for affiliated reinsurance in the Cayman Islands

By Editorial Staff Wed, May 1, 2024

The Cayman Island's "legislative and regulatory regime is less prescriptive and therefore affords prospective Cayman reinsurers greater flexibility to propose a bespoke capital model to our regulator without being...

Published May 2024

NAIC Urged to Limit ‘Bermuda Triangle’ Strategy

By Kerry Pechter Mon, Feb 12, 2024

'The ability of insurers to significantly lower the total asset requirement for long-duration blocks of business that rely heavily on asset returns appears to be one of the drivers...

Published February 2024

Of Athene, Pension Risk Transfers, and Fiduciaries

By Kerry Pechter Fri, Jul 28, 2023

The ERISA Advisory Council recently heard comments on changing the criteria that fiduciaries use when vetting annuity providers in pension risk transfer deals. Athene's vice chairman defended his company's...

Published July 2023

USAA inked a pair of reinsurance deals in 2021

By Editorial Staff Wed, May 4, 2022

USAA, a reciprocal insurer, completed reinsurance transactions with Commonwealth Annuity and Life and Fortitude Re, according to its 2021 annual statements.

Published May 5, 2022

Fortitude Re, Midwest Holdings pursue ‘triangle’ strategies

By Editorial Staff Tue, Jan 4, 2022

Fortitude Re, a reinsurer backed by The Carlyle Group, a $276 billion private equity firm, is completing its annuity-reinsurance-asset management strategy. Midwest Holdings' life insurer, American Life, has launched...

Published January 6, 2022

Prudential Sells $31bn Annuity Block to Bermuda Reinsurer

By Editorial Staff Wed, Sep 15, 2021

Fortitude Re will assume the assets and liabilities of a $31 billion block of Prudential annuities, and pay Prudential $1.5 billion. The block consists mainly of variable annuities with...

Published September 16, 2021

Athene Takes Another Bite at Pensions Apple

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Aug 5, 2021

In a pension risk transfer deal, Athene Holding will acquire about $4.9 bn in pension assets and liabilities from Lockheed Martin. But when do these deals become too much...

Published August 5, 2021

Aspida Financial to begin issuing annuities in 2022

By Editorial Staff Wed, Jul 28, 2021

With approximately $2.3 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2021, Aspida plans to 'underwrite new insurance products, execute reinsurance transactions, and pursue opportunistic acquisitions.'

Published July 29, 2021

Bermuda Triangle Part IV: The Reinsurance Angle

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Dec 10, 2020

Publicly-held life insurers are using reinsurance to improve their balance sheets. But at what cost? 'I believe that many of these blocks of business are only being funded in...

Published December 10, 2020

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