Reinsurance

Risk-transfer, treaty, and catastrophe-capacity terms.

Reinsurance pages explain how insurers share or transfer risk behind the scenes and why that matters for capacity, pricing, concentration, and catastrophe exposure.

This section is the insurer-side risk-transfer layer. It helps readers separate the direct insurance contract from the behind-the-scenes structures that support line size, catastrophe protection, earnings stability, and capital management.

Start Here

Why This Section Matters

Readers on the consumer side rarely see reinsurance directly, but it influences pricing, catastrophe management, and how insurers manage large or concentrated exposures.

Read This Section By Question

If the reader needs the basic structure

Start with Reinsurance, then compare Treaty Reinsurance with Facultative Reinsurance.

If the reader needs to understand how losses are shared

Read Proportional Reinsurance, Excess of Loss Reinsurance, and Retention together.

If the reader needs to know who is doing what

Use Ceding Company with Retention and Underwriting. Those pages explain how the direct insurer still owns the customer relationship even while risk is being ceded behind the scenes.

Typical Reinsurance Reading Paths

If the issue is… Start here Then read
An individual large risk needs separate market support Facultative Reinsurance Retention, Ceding Company, Commercial Insurance
The insurer wants an ongoing sharing arrangement across a book Proportional Reinsurance Treaty Reinsurance, Retention, Premium
The insurer wants severity or catastrophe protection above a kept layer Excess of Loss Reinsurance Retention, Ceding Company, Actuarial Basics

In this section

  • Ceding Company
    Original insurer that transfers part of its risk to a reinsurer.
  • Excess of Loss Reinsurance
    Reinsurance that responds only above the insurer's retained loss layer.
  • Facultative Reinsurance
    Facultative reinsurance in Canada: how an individual risk can be submitted separately to a reinsurer.
  • Proportional Reinsurance
    Reinsurance that shares premiums and losses by agreed percentages.
  • Reinsurance
    How insurers transfer part of their risk to reinsurers.
  • Retention
    Amount of risk or loss the ceding insurer keeps before reinsurance responds.
  • Treaty Reinsurance
    Standing reinsurance arrangement covering a defined class of business.
Revised on Friday, April 24, 2026