Reinsurance Fundamentals is a comprehensive overview of the reinsurance industry and the financial principles that guide it. It is also a penetrating study of real-world reinsurance problems and how to solve them. After an examination of the industry's underpinnings and a brief but fascinating look at its history, author Ross Phifer presents a detailed reinsurance primer. Writing for those familiar with insurance concepts, he offers an in-depth examination of how the reinsurance industry works, explains fundamental ideas, presents practical illustrations of when and how reinsurance arrangements should be considered, and describes the application of reinsurance to speculative financial transactions such as derivatives. Phifer analyzes different types of reinsurance agreements, clause by clause, and supplies thorough explanations of key concepts and their impact on the overall risk transfer. Among the topics discussed are reinsurance cessions, structures, markets, underwriting, proportional pricing, accounting, claims, and contracts. Reinsurance Fundamentals is an invaluable tool for in-house counsel, compliance officers, internal auditors, and risk managers in investment and commercial banking, securities, investment management, mutual funds, and pension fund management. It is also an important resource for corporate financial officers and an excellent reference for insurance underwriters, claims executives, risk managers, and attorneys.

In excess of loss reinsurance, the reinsurer covers the amount of a loss exceeding the policy’s deductible but not piercing its cover limit. Accordingly, a policy’s quantitative scope of cover is significantly affected by the parties’ agreement of a deductible and a cover limit. Yet, the examination of whether a loss has exceeded deductible or cover limit necessitates an educated understanding of what constitutes one loss. In so-called aggregation clauses, the parties to (re-)insurance contracts regularly provide that multiple individual losses are to be added together for presenting one loss to the reinsurer when they arise from the same event, occurrence, catastrophe, cause or accident. Aggregation mechanisms are one of the core instruments for structuring reinsurance contracts. This book systematically examines each element of an aggregation mechanism, tracing the inconsistent usage of aggregation language in the markets and scrutinizing the tests developed by courts and arbitral tribunals. In doing so, it seeks to support insurers, reinsurers, brokers and lawyers in drafting aggregation clauses and in settling claims. Focusing on an analysis of primary sources, particularly judicial decisions, the book interprets each judicial decision to describe a system of inter-related rules, collating, organising and describing the English law of aggregation as applied by the courts and arbitral tribunals. It further draws a comparison between the English position and the corresponding rules in the Principles of Reinsurance Contract Law (PRICL).

Presents overview of reinsurance. Describes reinsurance program design. Traces the reinsurance placement process. Regulation discussed. Identifies common reinsurance treaty clauses. Explains reserves.