At Pillar, we believe the property catastrophe reinsurance market offers a compelling opportunity for investors seeking returns that are uncorrelated with traditional asset classes. But the structures, terminology, and underwriting practices can be unfamiliar to even sophisticated institutional allocators.
What is Property Catastrophe Reinsurance?
It allows insurance companies — known as cedents — to transfer a portion of their risk to a reinsurer like Pillar. In the property catastrophe market, that risk often stems from major natural events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and other short-duration, high-severity perils.
These risks are generally “short-tailed” — meaning losses are realized and settled relatively quickly — and have little to no correlation with equity or bond markets.
Why Investors Allocate to This Asset Class
Attractive risk-adjusted return potential. Portfolio diversification through investment exposure across geographies, perils, and event structures. Event-driven outcomes that aren’t influenced by economic cycles.
Pillar helps investors access this asset class by deploying capital across reinsurance, retrocession, catastrophe bonds, and other insurance-linked instruments.
How We Think About Risk
Our proprietary tools — including the Pillar Risk Optimization System (PROS) — enable us to assess deals beyond third-party catastrophe models. We consider historical loss experience, data quality, legal structures, severity trends, and how a single trade affects the entire portfolio.
We don’t chase yield. We focus on risk-adjusted value. And we walk away when a deal doesn’t meet our standards — no matter the market cycle.
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