Industry executives speaking at an insurance conference recently discussed the potential market impact of the newest entrants to the U.S. property insurance market, with Chinese companies getting as much attention as Berkshire-Hathaway’s new specialty start up.
Executive Summary
Although new competitors are entering the property insurance market, and alternative capacity is moving into the reinsurance space, neither trend has yet to move the needle on primary insurance pricing, executives said at the Advisen Property Insights conference.Paul McNamee, president of North America Property & Specialty Lines Insurance for ACE North America, was the first to mention the potential for either or both to alter short-term market dynamics, during a session of the Advisen Property Insights conference on Tuesday.
Responding to a question from the panel’s moderator, Al Tobin, managing director and national property leader for Aon, about the ultimate impact of alternative reinsurance capital on the primary property insurance market, McNamee dismissed the idea that a reinsurance-pricing downdraft—driven by capital markets capacity—will filter down to insurance buyers.
