W. R. Berkley ceded $362m in premium to Lifson Re sidecar in H1 2025, up 76% year-on-year

W. R. Berkley Corporation, the US headquartered insurance holding company, has continued to make greater use of its Lifson Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar structure through the second-quarter of 2025, with written premiums ceded to the sidecar now up by 76% year-on-year for the first-half, at $362 million.

2025 began with W. R. Berkley increasing the cession rate percentage, for the quota share the Lifson Re sidecar enters into with its parent, to a 32.5% participation rate from January 1st, up from the 30% it had sat at since July 2022.

The effects of that were evident as over the first-quarter of the year W. R. Berkley ceded a significant 82% more in reinsurance and retrocession premiums to the sidecar structure, with written premiums ceded to Lifson Re reaching $171 million for Q1 2025.

Now, after Q2, the first-half total has reached $362 million, up 76% over H1 2024’s $206 million and still up versus H1 2023 when $281 million in written premiums were ceded to the sidecar by W. R. Berkley.

That H1 figure, for written premiums ceded to the Lifson Re sidecar is a really significant uplift when you consider that for full-year 2024 W. R. Berkley ceded $417 million of premiums to the sidecar, slightly down on the $437 million ceded to it in 2023 which was the highest full-year figure yet.

Meaning the company is well on its way to making this the biggest year yet for its use of the collateralized sidecar vehicle, in premium terms.

Recall that, W. R. Berkley capitalised the Lifson Re P&C sidecar vehicle with $418 million of equity for 2025, which was the largest size capital raise yet for the vehicle.

W. R. Berkley had launched the Bermuda based special purpose insurer (SPI), Lifson Re Ltd. for the 2021 underwriting year, with $250 million in capital raised from third-party investors for the sidecar.

Lifson Re stayed at $250 million for 2022, but then was upsized to $380 million for the 2023 underwriting year and then renewed again at the same $380 million for 2024.

It’s clear that, with the larger size and higher cession rate percentage of the quote share, Lifson Re is an increasingly valuable sidecar structure for W. R. Berkley, further evidenced by the increased premiums being ceded to it, to the benefit of the investors, through the first-half of 2025.

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