An intermediary that structures, places and administers a cedant's treaties with the reinsurance market.
A reinsurance broker designs the program structure, produces the actuarial and modeling analysis that supports it, approaches reinsurers, negotiates terms, drafts the slip and the wording, then administers accounts and claims for the life of the treaty. It is paid by a commission deducted from the premium, historically around ten percent on treaty business and falling steadily since. The problem it solves is access and information: a mid-sized cedant does not know the fifty markets that might write its top layer, and reinsurers cannot analyze every portfolio in the world. The broker concentrates that information on both sides. Its position raises a standing conflict of interest question, since it is mandated by the cedant but paid out of a premium the reinsurer funds, and because the large brokers also run catastrophe models whose output shapes the prices they negotiate. Transparency on these remunerations has become one of the sector's regulatory themes.
A French mutual mandates a broker in 2026 to place its 300 million euro program, against a commission of 8.5 percent on 12.7 million of premium, about 1.08 million. The broker produces an exceedance curve model, restructures the tower into six layers instead of four, and obtains a total cost 1.6 million below the expiring program, a net saving of 520,000 euros after commission.
Reinsurance broker, Intermédiaire de réassurance, Reinsurance intermediary