Tradecraft ILS Advisors consultancy launched by former AXIS ILS exec Kyle Freeman

Tradecraft ILS Advisors has been launched as a new independent consulting and advisory firm focused on the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market by well-known industry executive and former AXIS ILS leader Kyle Freeman.

With Tradecraft ILS Advisors, Freeman aims to work with organisations to help them in their strategic decision-making, transaction negotiations, contract structuring, and analysis, of insurance-linked securities opportunities and risk transfer arrangements.

The consultancy will work with both new market entrants and experienced ILS market participants that are looking to innovate in the space, while presumably Freeman’s experience would also be invaluable to investors looking at the asset class.

Freeman was most recently the Head of ILS at insurance and reinsurance company AXIS Capital, a role he took on in 2024 and he spent around four and half years at the company.

In that position Freeman had responsibility for managing existing investor relationships and the capital invested in a range of vehicles, including property catastrophe sidecars, catastrophe bonds, joint ventures, and other ILS structures sponsored or arranged by or for AXIS Capital.

In his time at the company, AXIS Capital evolved its third-party reinsurance capital strategy, launching new structures such as its Monarch Point Re casualty sidecar, while growing its fee income earned from ILS-style partnerships with investors.

Prior to that, Freeman had worked at re/insurer AXA XL as its Head of North America Programs Pricing, before which he had been an independent consultant to multiple companies in ILS and re/insurance, while earlier in his career he spent almost four years at JP Morgan managing ILS portfolios for the global investment bank and asset management firm.

His career in reinsurance and ILS began on the actuarial and modelling side, having worked at USAA where he helped structure and purchase reinsurance through its Residential Re cat bond program, and at modeller Verisk (AIR at the time) where he headed up the ILS group.

Under Tradecraft ILS Advisors, Freeman sees an opportunity to bring his experience in a broad range of ILS structures for multiple classes of business and perils, as well as his understanding of investor needs, to clients looking to enter, expand, or innovate in the market.