WRC Reinsurance Updates
By Brett Daniels, Vice President of Reinsurance
I was hopeful by this time, nearing my one-year anniversary at WRC, that I would have visited with most of you in person. However, 2020 and 2021 are not cooperating with me in this endeavor due to travel restrictions we have in place to keep everyone safe.
Soon, your Reinsurance Marketing Representative will contact you via a virtual meeting or phone call about the annual WRC Underwriting Survey. We would like to discuss your 2020 results and what you’re doing as a company to differentiate yourselves. Please take the time to explain the nuances that make your company special.
I look forward to reviewing your insights, and in the future visiting your office or talking with you at an industry event.
As many of you know, this past autumn Terry Wendorff, Jason Fogg and I, along with our broker team from Holborn Corporation, met virtually with our global reinsurers to discuss WRC’s performance and upcoming changes in WRC’s corporate contract language.
The reinsurers were clear that a cyber exclusion and communicable disease exclusion would be required in our 2021 corporate contract. Paul Wojahn of Holborn told us, “the continuing pandemic and resulting reinsurance market push for communicable disease exclusions was a dominant topic through our January 1 renewals. As we push for the broadest possible reinsurance coverage for our clients, we are also encouraging them to consider introduction of virus and communicable disease exclusions in their own policies.”
Our Mutual Assistance team within the WRC Reinsurance division is diligently working to create an AAIS-compatible cyber exclusion and communicable disease exclusion for you to use on your book of business. We expect these exclusions to be available by midyear. We’ll move forward with cyber and communicable disease exclusionary language changes in our 2022 contracts with our client mutuals.
The reinsurers also pointed out that rate and retentions would be in focus for 2021 and beyond. They highlighted that client mutuals need to continue to review rate adequacy within your primary books of business on an annual basis and review company retention limits. Greg Kaiser of Holborn said, “the global property reinsurance market had been firming early in 2020, primarily in response to poor experience and continued loss development from hurricanes, wildfires and other global events. Another active hurricane and wildfire year, capped off by the Iowa derecho, accelerated the rate movement and concurrently, caused many ceding companies to increase retentions. Undoubtedly, the hardening market for aggregate coverage was the tip of the spear in this regard.”
It’s going to be a busy year for each of you and all of us at WRC. Please remember we’re here because of you.
If you need help with a rate adequacy study, want to discuss potential deductible shifts or have questions on upcoming exclusions, we’re here to help. We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to build our partnership.