Unlock the Mysteries of CAT Pricing

The recent succession of US hurricane losses has impacted the US Catastrophe market causing many companies to reassess their risk appetite and their required return on allocated capital. While in the short, human time scales of the last 5, 10 or even 20 years, we’ve experienced some wide swings in US hurricane frequencies and losses, in the longer time frame of the peril of Atlantic Hurricanes, this variability is not outside of reasonable expectations.  Despite the consistency of the characteristics of Cat perils over longer time frames, in the past 20 years, pricing in the US hurricane market has varied significantly. When capacity is considered a commodity or investors ignore the long-term variability of Cat perils, required returns will be forced down. However, the insurance industry’s reaction to the last 3 years of US Cat losses can serve as a reminder that required returns, based on the time horizon of…