W. R. Berkley hits $406m in Lifson Re sidecar ceded premiums in 9M’26

W. R. Berkley Corporation, the US-headquartered insurance holding firm, has continued to make greater use of its Lifson Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar structure, with written premiums ceded to the sidecar now up year-on-year at $406 million for the first nine months of 2026.

As we’ve previously reported, W. R. Berkley capitalised the Lifson Re sidecar to the tune of $418 million for 2025, marking the vehicle’s largest capital raise at the time.

We’ve also explained in previous articles that there’s been no change for the 2026 underwriting year, with the sidecar’s capitalisation remaining static, while W. R. Berkley’s stake and the quota share cession ratio both remain at 32.5%.

In its full-year 2025 results, W. R. Berkley reported that written premiums ceded to the Lifson Re sidecar had increased to $494 million, which marked the highest annual level the company had recorded to date.

This momentum for W. R. Berkley has continued throughout 2026.

In the company’s financial results for Q1 2026, W. R. Berkley reported that it ceded just over $118.5 million of premiums to Lifson Re, which was notably higher than the Q1 2025 figure of just over $106 million.

Then in its Q2 2026 results, W. R. Berkley said that it ceded $148.5 million of premiums to Lifson Re.

Now in its Q3 2026 results, W. R. Berkley has said that it ceded nearly $139 million of premiums to Lifson Re during the period, higher than the Q3 2025 figure of $118.5 million.

More importantly, in its results for the first-nine months of 2026, W. R. Berkley said that it ceded just over $406 million of premiums to Lifson Re.

Ceded commissions and brokerage also rose to $43.8 million and $112.2 million for Q3’26 and 9M’26 respectively, up from last year’s $22.0 million and $88.1 million.

In addition, W. R. Berkley reported that fee income generated from management and performance related compensation related to the Lifson Re sidecar rose to $8 million, for 9M 2026, up from $4 million a year earlier.

Through Lifson Re, W. R. Berkley partners with third-party capital partners to efficiently manage its gross premiums and capital base. This structure helps manage underwriting exposure while generating additional fee income.

As a reminder, you can find details of numerous reinsurance sidecar investments and transactions in our directory of collateralized reinsurance sidecars transactions.