Reinsurance
Insurance is based on the principle of spreading the risk. To protect against large claims, the insurer purchases reinsurance from a reinsurer. In turn, the reinsurer may protect itself through retrocession through retrocessionaires.
In Canada, the major reinsurers are Munich Re, RGA and Swiss Re. One policy may have more than one reinsurer.
Reinsurance is invisible from your perspective. You would not deal with the reinsurers and would not even know who they are.
page revision: 0, last edited: 22 Sep 2007 21:13