Slide lifting reinsurance tower to ~$3.5bn for 2026, rate decreases substantial: CEO Lucas

Slide Insurance Company expects to have around $3.5 billion of catastrophe reinsurance limit in-force for a first event in 2026, an increase of roughly $1 billion and CEO Bruce Lucas has said that risk-adjusted rate decreases for its renewal are “substantial” so far.

Slide Insurance Company has been expanding its business rapidly and as a result increasing amounts of reinsurance limit are required, given its focus on property exposures and footprint in catastrophe exposed regions.

Now growing into a multi-state carrier, Slide has been building out a robust programme of catastrophe bond protection already, with 2026 seeing it back in the market in February.

As we explained, Slide secured its largest sponsorship to-date, securing the $320 million Purple Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond that at the time its CEO Bruce Lucas said came in with risk-adjusted pricing that was down more than 20% year-on-year.

Lucas highlighted at that time the reinsurance synergies his insurer is benefitting from as it grows, expecting attractive market conditions for its traditional reinsurance renewal in 2026.

Now, speaking during Slide’s first-quarter earnings call this week, Lucas has explained how the insurer is growing its reinsurance tower in 2026.

Lucas explained, “We are in the final process of completing our 2026 reinsurance program, and I anticipate completion of the reinsurance tower in the next 1 to 2 weeks.

“Year-over-year, risk-adjusted rate decreases are prevalent in the Florida market and the decreases have been substantial. I will not disclose the extent of the decreases in pricing at this time, out of respect for our reinsurance partners who are still negotiating with our peers.

“However, I will note that we increased our first event reinsurance tower by roughly $1 billion versus 2025. And despite this increase, reinsurance capacity significantly outpaced our demand as every layer of the reinsurance tower was oversubscribed on favorable terms.

“I’d like to thank our reinsurance partners for their unwavering commitment to Slide through hard and soft market conditions, and your partnership is greatly appreciated.”

Back in 2024, Slide’s reinsurance tower only extended to around a $1.86 billion first event and it seems that in 2025 the tower was perhaps around the $2.5 billion mark, it was not disclosed in the normal way given timing of the insurer’s IPO.

So the growth in reinsurance limit required by the company has been expansive, alongside its continued growth in its home state of Florida and the start of its multi-state expansion plans.

Lucas further explained during the earnings call, “Everything scales in tandem. So we’ve had obviously tremendous growth year-over-year at plus almost 50%. As you add more policies, your probable maximum loss on your reinsurance tower gets higher. And so apples-to-apples compared to last year, it’s the same. But in total, we did increase our first event reinsurance tower by $1 billion, so the tower is at approximately $3.5 billion of first event coverage. That is in line with what we did last year, although on a smaller book and smaller tower, they are proportionately identical to one another.”

He added that, “Reinsurance is our single largest expense of the organisation. So a decrease in reinsurance pricing is good for the Florida market and Florida cedents.”

Slide expects to have sideways protection in-force as well for 2026, with Lucas saying, “Expect something similar in terms of structure to what we did last year. We do like to step down retentions on event too. We do buy third event cover, and that is a rarity in the Florida market. In fact, I’m unaware of anyone that does that besides us. So as we get a higher number of catastrophe events, our retention steps down for each event. But we’re still in the process of finalising what that will look like, but not dissimilar to last year.”

Lucas further explained how the multi-state expansion can benefit Slide’s reinsurance buying.

“There are tremendous reinsurance synergies that we pick up as we scale in the Northeast. It’s the blueprint and model that I kind of created when I was at Heritage and it was very successful. So I have a high degree of confidence in that execution strategy,” the CEO said.

Lucas also said that while the reinsurance tower for 2026 is still being finalised, he does not expect first-event retention to be any higher, keeping it to no more than 25% of pre-tax earnings, as Slide has before.

Lucas stated, “We’re in a very good spot here and the retention is also spread out across a very large reinsurance tower. So it’s not like you have a $200 million loss and all of that loss is absorbed by the company. We spread that retention throughout different layers, we call it CO-PAR. We like to do that just to hedge the risk and show the reinsurers that we have real skin in the game. But, an event is not some armageddon for us, it’s just a ding to earnings for the year. But those earnings will still be incredibly robust.”

Slide currently has $980 million of cat bond risk capital outstanding at this time, according to the Artemis cat bond sponsor leaderboard.

There is $200 million of limit from Slide’s Purple Re Ltd. (Series 2023-1) and Purple Re Ltd. (Series 2023-2) cat bonds set to mature before the 2026 hurricane season begins, meaning Slide will go into the wind season with at least $780 million of cat bond supported hurricane reinsurance.