W. R. Berkley cedes 24% more premium to Lifson Re sidecar in H1 2023

W. R. Berkley Corporation, the US headquartered insurance holding company, has ceded 24% more in premiums to its Lifson Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar vehicle in the first-half of 2023, as it made use of the higher level of investor commitments available to it this year.

As a we reported back in February, for 2023, W. R. Berkley secured additional investor commitments for its Lifson Re sidecar, growing the vehicles capital base to $380 million .

That was an increase from the $250 million of capital that had backed the collateralized reinsurance sidecar for the two previous years.

In 2022, W. R. Berkley ceded $399 million of premiums to the Lifson Re sidecar, as it continued to expand its use of the vehicle that takes a now 30% share on the majority of the firm’s reinsurance placements, fully-collateralized and across all treaty reinsurance and retrocessional placements.

With the higher assets under management within the sidecar structure, the premium cessions have increased again in the first-half, with $281 million ceded to Lifson Re in the first six months of 2023.

That is a 24% increase on H1 2022, when W. R. Berkley ceded $226 million of written premiums to Lifson Re.

W. R. Berkley launched its Bermuda based special purpose insurer (ILS), named Lifson Re Ltd., in advance of the January 2021 underwriting year, with $250 million in capital raised from third-party investors for the sidecar.

The sidecar has been capitalised by sophisticated global investors with long-term investment horizons. We’re not sure how many investors are now backing Lifson Re in 2023, after the capital increase, but it was two at the sidecar’s launch back in 2021.

Lifson Re operates as a kind of third-party capital backed property & casualty (P&C) reinsurance sidecar for the W. R. Berkley, participating in its reinsurance cessions and bringing efficient capital market investor funding into its reinsurance tower.

Find details of numerous reinsurance sidecar investments and transactions in our directory of collateralized reinsurance sidecars transactions.