LAUNCHING TODAY: a newsletter for Miami Reinsurance Week

It started with a golf tournament organised by Odyssey Re for its clients about 20 years ago. The exact year perhaps lost in history. But from humble origins, Miami Reinsurance Week has steadily grown into one of the largest and most important events for risk-transfer professionals doing business in Latin America. 

Insurers, reinsurers, brokers and other professionals now flock to Miami in the second week of February each year for a series of networking events and face-to-face meetings.

An estimated 1,500 risk-transfer professionals now participate in the events organised through the week, all in the region of Brickell Avenue. From cocktail parties to business briefings; yacht cruises to golf tournaments (there are several now), it’s the only place to be for companies serious about doing business in a region offering robust growth opportunities.

There is no central information source about the event. The closest thing is a website run by the independent Network of LatAm Insurance Professionals (iNLIP), which details some events – but not all. Some clients prefer a more exclusive and private approach. 

That website, run by Miami Week veteran David Roig, describes it as “the most important Miami networking week of the year for the Latin American insurance iIndustry”. It notes that Miami has become a reinsurance hub for Latin America and hosts the regional headquarters of numerous re/insurance carriers and brokers – many of which are around Brickell Avenue. 

“Miami has also become a preferred destination for Latin American clients that go on roadshows, given the language capabilities and cultural affinity with the region,” the website states. It also stresses that the week is not a conference, summit or forum in any traditional sense. Instead, it consists of many independent insurance-related events and each company is in charge of its own event. 

In that sense, it mirrors the earliest days of the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous or the Baden-Baden Reinsurance Meeting;, critical events for the industry in terms of networking and renewal negotiations.

And so, for all the above reasons, but principally client demand, Intelligent Insurer made the decision this year to launch the first daily newsletter for the event: Miami Reinsurance Week Today. 

Our team of journalists on the ground will report on the events of the week and conduct live interviews, offering readers insights and analysis on the talking points and trends in this vibrant region. For anyone wishing to be part of this exciting new project, our contact details are on p14.

Another long-time attendee of the event is Juan-Fernando Serrano, presidente ejecutivo – CEO, LatinoInsurance, a subscription service that offers analysis and data on the region’s insurance markets. He too has watched the development of the week closely over the years. “It is now a great annual opportunity for the LatAm insurers and brokers to meet with the Miami reinsurance market and vice versa,” he told Miami Reinsurance Week Today.

“It has developed from golf and other sports events to having academic presentations and cocktails. It makes for efficient and productive networking.”

But he stresses that the real drive behind the event’s growth is the perceived opportunity in the Latin American insurance markets. “There are always growth and profitable opportunities across LatAm. However, larger countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, due to their size, can make a real impact on topline growth for reinsurers and brokers.” That said, he notes that business generation from some smaller and medium sized markets can also offer better returns.

The potential growth opportunities also transcend many business lines. He points out that life & health business represents a great opportunity due to the fact that 75 per cent of the region’s population is either underinsured or has no private insurance.

Next on this list is fire and earthquake insurance, due to its size, representing 57 per cent of all ceded premiums from the region. Cat losses in recent years have also meant a hardening of rates.

Next, he describes the growth potential of liability business, due to the fast development of the economies of some countries and the linked demand for these types of coverages. In some cases, such as medical malpractice, coverage has become mandatory.

In line with the rest of the world, cyber offers potential in the region, while surety business, agricultural lines and hull and engineering can all present lucrative opportunities .

That said, Latin America also has its challenges when it comes to doing business. It is also important to note the variety of cultures and economies. It cannot be treated as a single market.

That means regulatory challenges top most lists of the larger challenges businesses face when doing business there. Political and economic volatility in some countries might come next.

Serrano also notes that poverty, which limits the buying power of consumers, and government policy can also present challenges. The latter often takes the form of a lack of prioritiszation of risk prevention and risk transfer options (such as insurance). Some countries also have poor tax incentives for long- term savings & pension products.

This mixture of opportunity and challenges in the diverse region partly prompted Serrano to launch LatinoInsurance in 2001 with the objective of offering standardised and comparable technical and financial information of 19 countries in Latin America. These are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela. 

His service offers a mix of analytical business intelligence feature, standard and bespoke reports and a daily newsletter. It also offers a database of all the laws and regulations for the insurance market of all these countries.

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

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