North America's best performers - Part 1

This year Intelligent Insurer dedicated three months to extensive research on the current state of the reinsurance industry to establish which companies are regarded as performing well amid tough market conditions and many distractions such as M&A.

The resulting tables present the highest ranked companies in some of the core categories that were analysed during our study of the market, based on the responses of executives in relation to those questions that specifically dealt with the North American market.

The research these awards are based upon was a huge undertaking and represents one of the biggest surveys of its kind. Senior industry executives from across the globe took part in this project, which involved phone interviews and online surveys, to create a database of genuine use to the market.

Some 18 percent of respondents specifically commented in relation to North America. The figures and data presented here take into account these respondents, giving a fascinating insight into how the companies listed are regarded in North America.

NORTH AMERICAN MARKETS

Hannover Re took the lion’s share of the prizes in the list of reinsurers with gross written premium (GWP) of more than $2 billion, winning three of the four categories (client service, innovation and ability to create new solutions and expertise and market knowledge) and coming second in the fourth (ability and willingness to pay claims).

Similarly, the list of reinsurers with GWP of less than $2 billion was dominated by RenaissanceRe, which came first in three of the four categories (innovation and ability to create new solutions, expertise and market knowledge and ability and willingness to pay claims).

Although RenRe did not win the client service category it’s worth pointing out that the results from this category showed some very close results, with the first five companies being very tightly bunched in terms of scores out of 10.

Looking at the list of brokers we once again see a very tight grouping of companies. In the section for brokers with more than $1 billion in revenue Guy Carpenter won two of the three categories (innovation and ability to create new solutions and expertise and market knowledge) and was second in the third (client service), behind Guy Carpenter, which came second in the other categories. Willis Re was a close third behind them.

In the brokers with less than $1 billion in revenue we saw two companies in particular battling it out: TigerRisk Partners and JLT Re. TigerRisk Partners came first in two categories (innovation and ability to create new solutions and expertise and market knowledge), followed by JLT Re. The third category, client service, had JLT Re first by a whisker, just ahead of Beach & Associates and TigerRisk Partners.

Click here to see the North American results.

Some winners of the North American Awards 2015

Aon Benfield

Bryon Ehrhart, CEO of Aon Benfield Americas and chairman, Aon Securities,

Best Reinsurance Broker for Client Service (Revenues of more than $1bn)

Arch Re

(From left) Scott Stirling, chief underwriting officer; Jerome Halgan, president; Kenneth Vivian, CEO facultative; and Matt Dragonetti, head of Worldwide Property, all from Arch Re

Best Reinsurer for Client Service (GWP of less than $2bn)

Guy Carpenter

John Trace, chief operating officer US Operations, Guy Carpenter

Best Reinsurance Broker for Innovation (Revenues of more than $1bn)

Best Reinsurance Broker for Expertise and Market Knowledge (Revenues of more than $1bn)

Hannover Re

Axel Freiboth, managing director and chief underwriting officer (North American Treaty Division), Hannover Re

Best Reinsurer for Client Service (GWP of more than $2bn)

Best Reinsurer for Innovation (GWP of more than $2bn)

Best Reinsurer for Expertise and Market Knowledge (GWP of more than $2bn)

Munich Re

(From left) Paul Goodwin, senior vice president, client executive, client management, reinsurance division, and Michael Quigley, senior vice president and head of property underwriting, regional clients, reinsurance division, Munich Reinsurance America

Best Reinsurer for Ability to Pay Claims (GWP of more than $2bn)

RenaissanceRe

David Marra, chief underwriting officer, RenaissanceRe

Best Reinsurer for Innovation (GWP of less than $2bn)

Best Reinsurer for Expertise and Market Knowledge (GWP of less than $2bn)

Best Reinsurer for Ability to Pay Claims (GWP of less than $2bn)

TigerRisk Partners

Rod Fox, managing partner of TigerRisk Partners and his team

Best Reinsurance Broker for Innovation (Revenues of less than $1bn)

Best Reinsurance Broker for Expertise and Market Knowledge(Revenues of less than $1bn)