Edward Torres hired by Willis Re to focus on structured & legacy risks

Reinsurance broker Willis Re has hired former PartnerRe Director of Capital Markets Edward Torres to a role that will see him focused on structured transactions and legacy liability risk transfer, areas the broker sees as relevant to capital markets expansion into insurance risk.

Torres has joined Willis Re as an a Structured Reinsurance Broker and Executive Vice President, operating out of the Willis Re New York office.

He is a member of the brokers Financial Advisory team, focusing on the placement of prospective structured reinsurance solutions and legacy liability transfers, such as loss portfolio transfers and adverse development covers.

At PartnerRe, Torres spent almost six years working on capital markets and insurance-linked securities solutions, becoming Director of Capital Markets Reinsurance Solutions at the firm where he played a key role in developing the firms alternative capital strategy.

Before joining PartnerRe in 2012, Torres spent 4 years working as President & portfolio manager at Baldwin & Lyons Capital Markets, an ILS focused investment management specialist. Before that he spent two years as a Registered Principal at Benfield Advisory, Inc., where he focused on originating, structuring and distributing insurance-Linked securities. From 1995 through 2006 Torres worked as a structured reinsurance underwriter, most recently at Platinum Underwriters.

Torres’ career has largely been focused on structured risks and ILS. He moves into this new role at Willis Re at a time when the capital markets is expanding its appetite for transactions in the structured space and when legacy liability deals are also becoming more attractive to ILS funds and investors as well.

He has always worked at the intersection of insurance and capital markets and at this time investor appetite is expanding beyond pure property catastrophe exposure, which is creating new opportunities for both insurers and capital providers.

Jim Bradshaw, CEO of Willis Re North America, commented, “Structured products, particularly legacy liability transfers, will become an increasingly important area for our clients. Willis Re has an established reputation for innovation and client advocacy in this area and we are delighted to welcome Ed Torres to the team to help expand this effort. Willis Re is committed to bringing the most efficient form of capital to its clients, across a full spectrum of products.

“Willis Towers Watson has the broadest set of capabilities in the market and Willis Re is committed to bringing the most efficient form of capital to its clients, across a full spectrum of products.”