Reinsurance

Reinsurance is insurance that is purchased by an insurance company (the "ceding company" or "cedent" or "cedant" under the arrangement) from one or more other insurance companies (the "reinsurer") directly or through a broker as a means of risk management, sometimes in practice including tax mitigation and other reasons described below. The ceding company and the reinsurer enter into a reinsurance agreement which details the conditions upon which the reinsurer would pay a share of the claims incurred by the ceding company. The reinsurer is paid a "reinsurance premium" by the ceding company, which issues insurance policies to its own policyholders.

The reinsurer may be either a specialist reinsurance company, which only undertakes reinsurance business, or another insurance company. Insurance companies that sell reinsurance refer to the business as 'assumed reinsurance'.

A healthy reinsurance marketplace helps ensure that insurance companies can remain solvent (financially viable), particularly after a major disaster such as a major hurricane, because the risks and costs are spread.