Momentum of 2004 and 2005 Storm Activity Carries Into 2006
New York, October 30, 2007 – Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, the leading global risk and reinsurance specialist and a part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), today published Guy Carpenter Casualty Reserve Index: Managing the Unknown, a briefing that examines the challenges that insurers face from hard-to-manage “systemic” risks and inadequate reserves. The paper also outlines a number of new hedging tools that Guy Carpenter is developing to help them more effectively address potential reserve inadequacy.
“Under-reserving is often a result of what we broadly refer to as ‘systemic’ risks,” said Michelle Harnick, Managing Director at Guy Carpenter. “These include new areas of toxic torts as well as unforeseeable events, legislative and regulatory changes, aggregation risk, changes in the macroeconomic environment and adverse decisions on insurance cover. All of these have the potential to hurt profitability, even threaten a cedants’ solvency.”
Ms. Harnick added, “Working with our clients, we identified a need for a new class of products that would allow them to hedge the systemic risk associated with long-tail lines, keeping in mind risk bearers’ desire for new and diversified product portfolios. The hedge index we are developing will pave the way for transparent means of protecting against unpredictable adverse loss reserve development.”
The index, which is being tested across private passenger auto liability, commercial auto liability, workers compensation, commercial multi-peril, medical malpractice and other liability lines, is based on industry loss development indices.
In addition to providing clients with a verifiable, statistically credible hedge product that requires little underwriting, it also will allow cedants to access alternative capital for more effective risk management. Leveraging the index, Guy Carpenter can assist clients in minimizing basis risk by helping them select a reference portfolio for the index and optimize both the selection of index attachment points and the amount of coverage for each accident year.
A copy of the briefing, Guy Carpenter Casualty Reserve Index: Managing the Unknown, is available for download at www.guycarp.com.
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