As the reinsurance industry approaches the mid-year 2026 renewal season, Adrian Daws, CEO of Hamilton Re, the Bermuda-based underwriting platform of global specialty insurer and reinsurer Hamilton, remains optimistic about its growth opportunities, even as the market navigates transitioning conditions.<\/p>\n
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Speaking with Reinsurance News during our visit to Bermuda, Daws emphasised that Hamilton Re\u2019s diversified portfolio across specialty, casualty, and property insurance and reinsurance, provides flexibility and resilience as the trading environment evolves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still opportunities for growth,\u201d Daws stated. \u201cHaving a diversified portfolio allows us to be more flexible entering what we\u2019re seeing as a more challenging trading environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The executive expects the softening cycle in the specialty space to persist through the mid-year 2026 renewals, though the pace varies across sub-classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing that not all the markets are moving at the same pace. In the specialty space, the market is assuming that the softening cycle will continue into the mid-year renewals. With markets moving at different paces, we\u2019re seeing the Marine and Energy space perhaps feeling a bit more pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nAdding: \u201cWar and Terror and Political Violence classes, which are clearly subject to some activity at this time, are seeing less softening. The corrections in pricing are largely confined to those particular areas that are affected by the current conflict. That\u2019s not necessarily something we\u2019re seeing across the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cBroadly speaking, for specialty, we expect that trajectory of softening to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The casualty sector is a bit different, Daws noted, as it is showing more resilience. He described the outlook as good, emphasising that the general softening seen elsewhere has not yet taken hold here.<\/p>\n
However, he urged caution regarding social and economic inflation, which remain the primary drivers of risk management within the casualty book.<\/p>\n
With the property sector, the market assumption still remains that softening will continue into the mid-year, according to Daws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is over capacity in the market, largely generated by the recent strong Q1 results that have been announced, but the underlying books of business are still very strong. The coverage and the attachment points that are being offered by reinsurers are still pretty good. So, though rates are coming off, they are coming off from a good place,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
While there are clear signs of softening, Daws believes that discipline is holding, although it does vary slightly by sector.<\/p>\n
He commented: \u201cOn the speciality side of things, we have seen attachment points generally hold at 1.1 and 1.4. But cedents are requesting some buy downs and in certain cases, there is some evidence of those retentions, on loss free portfolios perhaps, reducing slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarine Energy is showing the most in terms of a signal of softening, with a slight broadening of perils. For Political Violence, my comments are as just mentioned. So, the discipline is holding. And, people are generally managing the exposures through sub-limits, aggregate, event clauses, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the casualty space, there are limited pockets of increased ceding commissions, but only in a relatively small number of cases and where the loss experience would support that. Otherwise, I wouldn\u2019t say there are any particularly material changes. And in property, the attachment points have largely held. The discussions there are really around pricing,\u201d concluded Daws<\/p>\n
The post A diversified portfolio is key to navigating a softening cycle: Hamilton Re\u2019s Daws<\/a> appeared first on ReinsuranceNe.ws<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the reinsurance industry approaches the mid-year 2026 renewal season, Adrian Daws, CEO of Hamilton Re, the Bermuda-based underwriting platform of global specialty insurer and reinsurer Hamilton, remains optimistic about its growth opportunities, even as the market navigates transitioning conditions….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1953,"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions\/1953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ateliersfurrer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}