LatAm is open to insurance around crypto, cannabis & high-risk markets: Relm

“We view Latin America as a really important strategic opportunity that we’re now in a position to magnify and amplify.”

That is the view of Joe Ziolkowski, CEO and founder of Relm Insurance, who has built his company to offer coverage in industries that traditional insurers have been hesitant to support. These include things such as digital assets, cannabis, and alternative risk.

Although based in Bermuda, Relm is expanding in the US and particularly in Miami. He is also eyeing appetite for his products in Latin America, he told Miami Reinsurance Week Today.

“There’s increasing adoption of digital asset products, exchanges, and trading platforms. Some are now integrating into traditional financial institutions,” he said.

He highlights regulatory changes, such as Brazil’s new online gambling legislation, which can create further insurance needs. 

Relm aims to “build strategic market entry plans, source business in a compliant way and secure reinsurance support.”

Ziolkowski is keen to “find aligned partners comfortable sourcing and building pipelines for companies operating in these sectors, which are typically outside of most people’s square boxes.”

Looking ahead, Relm’s expansion strategy is threefold: sector diversification, regional growth and product development.

“If you ask how demand has changed, it’s up and to the right”

“Beyond digital assets, cannabis, and psychedelics, we’re looking at transformational industries like the new space economy, artificial intelligence and deep technology.

“Making innovation resilient. That’s what drives our approach to risk and opportunity,” Ziolkowski said.

“Because we focus on sectors not well accommodated by traditional insurers, we often write primary layers of protection, meaning we’re on the front line, making informed risk selection decisions.

“We purposefully moved into these spaces knowing that we weren’t going to have any reinsurance support for years,” Ziolkowski explained. “For nearly the first four years of operations, we had no reinsurance support. We were aggregating this risk very intentionally, selectively, and responsibly on our own balance sheet.

That approach has clearly paid off. 

“We built a big enough portfolio, demonstrated independent profitability and loss performance, and got reinsurers to the table,” Ziolkowski recalled.

Today, Relm has structured two reinsurance treaties and sees continued evolution in the market.

For more news from Miami Reinsurance Week Today, click here.

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