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Reinsurance
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2024
Reinsurance Disclosures [Abstract]  
Reinsurance
12. Reinsurance

In reinsurance and retrocession transactions, an insurance or reinsurance company transfers, or cedes, all or part of its exposure in return for a premium. The ceding of insurance does not legally discharge the Company from its primary liability for the full amount of the policies, and the Company will be required to pay the loss and bear collection risk if the reinsurer fails to meet its obligations under the reinsurance or retrocessional agreement. A credit risk exists with ceded reinsurance to the extent that any reinsurer is unable to meet the obligations assumed under the reinsurance or retrocessional contracts. Allowances are established for credit losses expected to be recognized over the life of the reinsurance recoverables.

Within its underwriting operations, the Company uses reinsurance and retrocessional reinsurance to manage its net retention on individual risks and overall exposure to losses while providing it with the ability to offer policies with sufficient limits to meet policyholder needs.

Within the Company's underwriting operations, at December 31, 2024, balances recoverable from the ten largest reinsurers, by group, represented 63% of the $5.0 billion reinsurance recoverables before considering reinsurance allowances and collateral.
As of December 31, 2023, balances recoverable from the ten largest reinsurers, by group, represented 65% of the $4.0 billion reinsurance recoverables before considering reinsurance allowances and collateral. At December 31, 2024, the largest reinsurance balance was due from RenaissanceRe and represented 19% of reinsurance recoverables before considering reinsurance allowances and collateral.

Within its program services and ILS fronting operations, the Company generally enters into quota share reinsurance agreements whereby the Company cedes to the capacity providers (reinsurers) substantially all of its gross liability under the policies issued by and on behalf of the Company by a general agent. However, there are certain programs that contain limits on the reinsurers' obligations to the Company that expose the Company to underwriting risk, including loss ratio caps, exclusions of the credit risk of producers and aggregate reinsurance limits that the Company believes are unlikely to be exceeded. The Company also remains exposed to the credit risk of the reinsurer, or the risk that one of its reinsurers becomes insolvent or otherwise unable or unwilling to pay policyholder claims. This credit risk is generally mitigated by either selecting well capitalized, highly rated authorized capacity providers or requiring that the capacity provider post substantial collateral to secure the reinsured risks, which, in some instances, exceeds the related reinsurance recoverable.

Within the Company's program services business, at December 31, 2024, balances recoverable from the ten largest reinsurers, by group, represented 55% of the $6.0 billion reinsurance recoverables before considering reinsurance allowances and collateral. As of December 31, 2023, balances recoverable from the ten largest reinsurers, by group, represented 56% of the $4.9 billion reinsurance recoverables before considering reinsurance allowances and collateral. At December 31, 2024, the largest reinsurance balance was due from Lloyd's of London and represented 9% of reinsurance recoverables before considering reinsurance allowances and collateral. All of the Company's ILS fronting business is conducted by its Nephila ILS operations; therefore, substantially all of the reinsurance recoverables within these operations are attributable to entities managed by Nephila. See note 18.

The following tables summarize the effect of reinsurance and retrocessional reinsurance on premiums written and earned.

Year Ended December 31, 2024
(dollars in thousands)DirectAssumedCededNet Premiums
Underwriting:
Written$8,860,015 $1,691,858 $(2,252,122)$8,299,751 
Earned$8,801,477 $1,628,408 $(1,993,895)$8,435,990 
Fronting:
Written3,234,025 1,708,733 (4,946,334)(3,576)
Earned3,053,947 1,559,599 (4,617,124)(3,578)
Consolidated:
Written$12,094,040 $3,400,591 $(7,198,456)$8,296,175 
Earned$11,855,424 $3,188,007 $(6,611,019)$8,432,412 

Year Ended December 31, 2023
(dollars in thousands)DirectAssumedCededNet Premiums
Underwriting:
Written$8,657,266 $1,620,366 $(1,878,844)$8,398,788 
Earned$8,363,710 $1,616,630 $(1,683,648)$8,296,692 
Fronting:
Written2,649,217 1,075,388 (3,725,818)(1,213)
Earned2,636,179 937,400 (3,574,792)(1,213)
Consolidated:
Written$11,306,483 $2,695,754 $(5,604,662)$8,397,575 
Earned$10,999,889 $2,554,030 $(5,258,440)$8,295,479 
Year Ended December 31, 2022
(dollars in thousands)DirectAssumedCededNet Premiums
Underwriting:
Written$8,085,812 $1,761,726 $(1,640,165)$8,207,373 
Earned$7,379,766 $1,589,920 $(1,378,191)$7,591,495 
Fronting:
Written2,644,138 710,006 (3,358,127)(3,983)
Earned2,688,804 656,885 (3,349,392)(3,703)
Consolidated:
Written$10,729,950 $2,471,732 $(4,998,292)$8,203,390 
Earned$10,068,570 $2,246,805 $(4,727,583)$7,587,792 

Substantially all of the premiums written and earned in the Company's fronting operations for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022 were ceded. The percentage of consolidated ceded earned premiums to gross earned premiums was 44%, 39% and 38% for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The percentage of consolidated assumed earned premiums to net earned premiums was 38%, 31% and 30% for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Substantially all of the incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses in the Company's fronting operations were ceded. These losses totaled $3.5 billion, $2.5 billion, and $3.0 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022 respectively.

The following table summarizes the effect of reinsurance and retrocessional reinsurance on losses and loss adjustment expenses in the Company's underwriting operations.

Years ended December 31,
(dollars in thousands)202420232022
Gross losses and loss adjustment expenses$6,970,871 $6,817,630 $5,281,424 
Ceded losses and loss adjustment expenses(1,917,318)(1,496,265)(834,648)
Net losses and loss adjustment expenses$5,053,553 $5,321,365 $4,446,776