What is the RAA?
The Reinsurance Association of America (RAA), headquartered in Washington, D. C., is a national trade association established in 1968 to proactively influence and guide federal and state lawmakers, and international bodies, as they formulate and consider legislation that regulates the business environment in which the property and casualty reinsurance industry operates.
The RAA is committed to promoting a regulatory environment that ensures the industry remains competitive and financially robust, unhindered by conflicting state and federal regulation.
The RAA's public policy priorities include: federal and state financial role for natural disaster and terrorism catastrophe risk; regulatory reform efforts at the federal and state level; international trade, accounting and tax policy; accounting and financial reporting; solvency oversight and reinsurance recoverables; increased risk environment; and climate change and environmental risk.
Who are the Members of the RAA?
RAA members and affiliate members are experienced and well-established providers of reinsurance or are reinsurance intermediaries. To become an underwriting member of the RAA, an entity must:
- Be engaged in the assumption of U.S. property-casualty reinsurance from non-affiliated companies, and retain substantial risk.
To become an affiliate member of the RAA, a reinsurance intermediary must:
- Be engaged, as its principal activity, in the placement of reinsurance risk from non-affiliated companies.
- Be licensed or authorized as a reinsurance broker or reinsurance intermediary.
Affiliate membership is also open to life reinsurers.
A list RAA members can be found here.
What is reinsurance?
Reinsurance is best thought of as "insurance for insurance companies," a way for a primary insurer to protect against unforeseen or extraordinary losses. Reinsurance serves to limit liability on specific risks, to increase individual insurers' capacity, to share liability when losses overwhelm the primary insurer's resources, and to help insurers stabilize their business in the face of the wide swings in profit and loss margins inherent in the insurance business. For example, reinsurance plays a critically necessary, though behind-the-scenes, role in the financial management of natural disaster losses.
In a reinsurance contract one insurance company (the reinsurer, or assuming insurer) charges a premium to indemnify another insurance company (the ceding insurer) against all or part of the loss it may sustain under its policies. Reinsurance contracts may cover a specific risk or a broad class of business. Reinsurance is a global business. Its international nature reflects a further spreading of risk and access to broader capital markets to help cover losses. About 40% of all U.S. reinsurance premiums, and two-thirds of all property catastrophe reinsurance premiums, are written by foreign reinsurance companies.
What services does the RAA provide?
The RAA engages in a variety of activities that serve its members and affiliates by representing their collective interests, as well as providing information and analysis to audiences outside the industry.
- Legislation -- The RAA is an active advocate for reinsurance interests before state regulators and legislators, who directly regulate the insurance business. At the federal level, the RAA is actively lobbies on insurance and reinsurance regulatory issues, such as Optional Federal Charter and the Reinsurance Reform Act, and other issues, such as cat fund, natural disaster, and NFIP legislation.
- Legal agenda -- The RAA serves as a resource for its members and affiliates on analysis of reinsurance statutes and case law nationwide. It represents its members' interests by litigating on behalf of its members and serving as amicus curiae on issues of importance to the reinsurance industry. The RAA publishes articles to further development of reinsurance law in the U.S. (Click here to see a list of our legal publications.)
- Information -- The RAA provides aggregate data, including quarterly statistics on industry underwriting results, analysis of annual statement data on the reinsurance market, an underwriting review of premiums and losses, and a biennial study on historical loss development.
- Education -- Seminars on reinsurance-specific education are held around the country each year. Conferences for RAA members and affiliates cover catastrophe modeling, basics of reinsurance, reinsurance contracts, reinsurance claims, reinsurance underwriting, and reinsurance finance. (Click here to see a list of our education offerings.)
- Publications -- Numerous publications developed by the RAA provide industry data and help explain the complexities of the reinsurance business. (Click here to see a list of our data publications.)
