Beatrice Morley Provides Perspectives on Reinsurance Casualty Renewals

During a recent interview with Matthew Lerner, Business Insurance Senior Reporter, Beatrice Morley, Aspen Re Global Head of Casualty and Head of International Reinsurance, explained that although casualty reinsurance may be expanding, adverse development from prior year casualty losses has been impacting the buying environment for reinsurers.

Beatrice said: “One of the main discussion points for the casualty business continues to be around adverse development,” adding that a cedent’s strategy for managing its book of business has been key during reinsurance renewal negotiations.

“One of the clear differentiators has been how a company is able to articulate its strategy on how it’s able to manage the portfolios going forward, how they’ve remediated it, what lines of business they’ve exited and what they’ve done with their limits,” she said.

Many feel that underwriting discipline has been working for reinsurers, even though underwriters are unclear where the trend goes moving forward. This is, due in part, to some evidence that adverse loss development continued in 2024. Although cautious, most insurance executives interviewed for this article said they are optimistic that the casualty market will remain consistent and that capacity will be adequate for 1/1 renewals.

Casualty capacity has been growing in the reinsurance market, even as the industry continues to tackle pressures from escalating social inflation and growing competition from third party capital. Increasing numbers of cedants are looking into casualty sidecars and wanting to have a better understanding of alternative capital in the casualty market. Last year Aspen and PIMCO Investment Management formed Pando Re, a Bermuda-domiciled collateralized insurer and reinsurer focused on casualty risks.

Read the entire Business Insurance article with commentary from Beatrice and her peers here.

Footnote: Beatrice Morley and Boon Tay, Head of Aspen Singapore Branch, will be attending the 21st Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC) November 3-6, at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore.