US-headquartered insurance holding company W. R. Berkley Corporation has continued to expand its use of its Lifson Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar through 2025, with written premiums ceded to the sidecar rising to $494 million, the highest level the company has recorded to date.
This follows a significant 2025 capitalisation of $418 million, which marked the vehicle’s largest capital raise at the time.
At the start of 2025, W. R. Berkley also increased the quota share cession rate for Lifson Re to 32.5%, up from the 30% rate held since July 2022.
The impact of this was clearly observable, as during Q1 2025, W. R. Berkley ceded a significant 82% more in reinsurance and retrocession premiums to the sidecar structure, with the premiums ceded to Lifson Re totaling $171 million for the quarter.
Additionally, we also reported that for the first half of 2025, W. R. Berkley ceded $362 million in premiums to its Lifson Re sidecar, reflecting a 76% increase compared to the $206 million ceded to the sidecar structure in H1 2024.
Then in Q3 2025, that total reached a substantial $482 million, which marked a major uplift when you consider that for full-year 2024 W. R. Berkley ceded $417 million of premiums to the sidecar, which was slightly down on the $437 million ceded to it in 2023 which at the time, was the highest full-year figure yet.
Now, for full-year 2025, W.R. Berkley has reported that it ceded $494 million of premiums to the sidecar, an 18.5% increase from 2024.
As mentioned, this means that the company has now posted its highest full figure yet for written premiums ceded to its Lifson Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar structure.
Lifson Re has become a crucial reinsurance counterparty for W.R. Berkley, operating as a key component functioning as a vital element of their capital management approach to address rising premiums.
As a reminder, you can find details of numerous reinsurance sidecar investments and transactions in our directory of collateralized reinsurance sidecars transactions.
