Weston Hicks, president of Alleghany
While alternative capital is here to stay, the industry could well experience a significant reset in rates if cracks in reserves widen and this combines with a big catastrophe loss, says Weston Hicks, the president of Alleghany, who also explains to Intelligent Insurer why his business is ready to benefit from such a scenario.
Cracks are beginning to appear in the industry’s reserves and, especially if this issue comes to a head at the same time as other capital-depleting challenges, has the potential to cause the re/insurance to reset its rates and mindset practically overnight, triggering a hard market.
That is the view of Weston Hicks, the president of Alleghany, which owns multiple re/insurance businesses including reinsurer TransRe, wholesale insurer RSUI Group, speciality lines player CapSpecialty and Pacific Compensation Insurance Company, a workers’ compensation insurer.
Hicks explains that if worries about under-reserving were to coincide with either a big catastrophe event or a severe crash in the stock market, there could be a rapid change in an industry that has now been grappling with soft rates in most lines of business for almost a decade.
Alleghany, Weston Hicks, Insurance, Reinsurance, North America
