Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made its resurgent appetite for property and casualty reinsurance underwriting evident in the second-quarter, as the companies reinsurance unit underwrote 29% more in gross premiums than the prior year.

For Berkshire Hathaway, the insurance and reinsurance underwriting conglomerate led by Warren Buffett, it’s not simply a question of carefully crafted exclusions when it comes to pandemic risks, for the so-called Sage of Omaha is perfectly happy to underwrite it, as long as the price is right.

Berkshire Hathaway’s reinsurance underwriting result was dented by Japanese typhoon Hagibis and bushfires in Australia during the fourth-quarter of the year, contributing to an underwriting loss for the year across Warren Buffett’s reinsurance related businesses.

Warren Buffett’s reinsurance group Berkshire Hathaway appears to have expanded its book and as a result its exposure in Japan this year, as its losses from 2019’s typhoons look set to eclipse those suffered in 2018 from typhoon Jebi.

Warren Buffett’s conglomerate re/insurer Berkshire Hathaway wants to own the entire small commercial or business insurance value-chain with its latest initiative, putting technology to work alongside its enormous appetite for risk.

Warren Buffett’s conglomerate business Berkshire Hathaway is beginning to put a succession plan in place for when he and Charlie Munger retire and the firm’s re/insurance leader Ajit Jain has been promoted to the Board of Directors in a new role as Vice Chairman of the Insurance division.

Despite a catastrophe loss bill of around $3 billion from recent hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as well as the Mexico earthquakes, Warren Buffett’s insurance and reinsurance businesses at Berkshire Hathaway continued to contribute to a growing pot of investment float, leaving the firm with even more excess capital.

Warren Buffett doled out some more of his sage advice in the annual Berkshire Hathaway letter to shareholders this year, offering something for the reinsurance industry to ponder at this competitive time.

Warren Buffett’s reinsurer Berkshire Hathaway has entered into an agreement to provide insurer AIG with an adverse development reinsurance cover for 80% of the firm’s long-tail U.S. commercial liabilities, costing AIG $9.8 billion.

No, it probably doesn’t mean Berkshire Hathaway is going to sponsor a catastrophe bond anytime soon, but the news that ILS legal expert Robert Underhill has been hired to the firm could certainly provide Warren Buffett’s insurance and reinsurance unit with interesting options.