Catastrophe Risks

This year's California wildfires could lead to further increases in reinsurance rates, according to a new commentary from A.M. Best. Given the extensive use of reinsurance by insurance companies with property exposures in California, the 2020 wildfires may spur additional reinsurance and retrocession market rate hikes along with capacity shifts. Read More

While the economic and insured losses from Hurricane Laura will be significant, the catastrophe is unlikely to prompt downgrades of individual property-casualty insurers or reinsurers, according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch said that Hurricane Laura will likely be an earnings event and not a capital event for the property-casualty industry. Read More

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been significant for both traditional insurance companies and captive insurance companies. That impact will likely continue to be felt for some time to come, according to speakers discussing "Captives and Unforeseen (Pandemics) Events" at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association 2020 Virtual Conference. Read More

Disasters resulted in $31 billion in global insured property losses in the first half of 2020, up from $23 billion during the same period last year, according to the Swiss Re Institute. Natural catastrophes were responsible for $28 billion of the insured losses, most from secondary peril events. Read More

The Vermont Captive Insurance Association’s (VCIA) 2020 Virtual Conference began Tuesday against a backdrop of an active year for new captive insurance company formations in the state. Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, said the state has licensed approximately 20 new captives thus far in 2020. Read More