The Voice of Insurance

Today’s guest is an insurance professional who has just completed forty years in the market.
Over that time he has built a reputation as the consummate underwriter’s underwriter.
But by some strange coincidence our paths hadn’t crossed – until now.
We can complain about Monte Carlo all we want but it never fails to throw up wonderful opportunities to meet the most senior and prestigious figures in the global insurance and reinsurance industry.
So it was that I finally met Jack Kuhn, President of Westfield Specialty at a meeting table in a conference hall in the bowels of the Fairmont Hotel.
At Monte Carlo everyone is in talking mode and so what follows is the classic fast-paced kind of conversation you have ten times a day when down at the Rendez-Vous.
But listening back in the cold light of day, it’s Jack’s underwriting leadership qualities that really stand out – even in such a frenetic environment.
He is calm and focused and has a clear idea of what he wants to achieve. Like all the best underwriters, he is never dismissive of new ideas, but weighs them carefully and leaves you in no doubt where he stands.
Westfield Specialty is in an enviable position, now writing around $2.4bn of gross premium, as part of a mutual group with a 178-year pedigree, it can evaluate and navigate the market on its merits, without pressure to grow.
And that’s where this conversation shines. It’s liberating to talk to an underwriter with such a long and successful career, being given the chance to design an underwriting shop that is applying the full benefit of all that experience.
Jack is clearly in his element and really enjoying this latest chapter in his career, and this conversation encompasses all the big themes:
The challenges of a highly competitive insurance and reinsurance market, emerging automatic digital underwriting and AI as an emerging casualty peril, all have a strong showing, among many other themes.

It’s always great to finally meet someone you have heard a lot about, but it can sometimes be a little anticlimactic. I am pleased to report that this meeting exceeded all expectations and my only regret is not having met Jack twenty years earlier.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens:
https://www.advantagego.com

Welcome to the fifth Episode of its kind, documenting the 2026 Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous on your behalf.
The first in 2022 foretold a historic, chaotic and dramatic hard-market renewal. At the next, stability and a return to orderliness was craved, and was granted. The year after that, animal spirits started to be talked of in hushed tones. Last year, the industry had its mojo well and truly back.
Twelve months ago I heard reinsurers tell me, almost to a person, that they were happy to give up a little rate in exchange for growth. Well, the renewal at 1.1.26 delivered two years of softening compressed into one – so were they still happy?
Today capital is even more abundant. Profits are still real, but are hurdles still being met and are red lines about to be crossed as the market continues to soften?
Join me as I wander the streets, dodge the supercars, cross the squares and elbow my way through the crowded bars and lobbies of Monte Carlo, to meet a representative cross-section of the Reinsurance buying and selling public, and find out what's really happening in the State of (Re)insurance as we look towards 1.1.27.

LINKS:
Here are the Reinsurance Broker Reports I promised:
Aon –Snapshot Guide to the Reinsurance Renewal
https://assets.aon.com/-/media/files/aon/reports/2026/09022026-snapshot-guide.pdf
Gallagher Re – Reinsurance Market Report – Half-Year 2026
https://www.ajg.com/gallagherre/-/media/files/gallagher/gallagherre/news-and-insights/2026/september/reinsurance-market-report-half-year-2026.pdf
Howden Re – Breaking the Glass
https://www.howdenre.com/sites/howdenre.howdenprod.com/files/2026-09/Howden_Re_Breakingtheglass_Pre_renewals_report_September7_2026.pdf
Marsh Re – 2027 Renewal Outlook
https://www.guycarp.com/content/dam/guycarp-rebrand/pdf/2027_Renewal_Outlook_Driving_Impact_through_Insight.pdf
THANKS
We thank our Podcast Sponsor Stephens Rickard
https://www.stephensrickard.com

Today’s podcast is a really strong conversation with someone in a significant strategic position within the global Facultative reinsurance, Wholesale and Specialty market.
That’s because across 26 business lines, with platforms in the US, London and Singapore they run a business that is closing in on $4bn in Gross written premium in 2026.
Jason Keen is the CEO of Global Wholesale and Specialty at Everest Insurance and given his broad viewpoint of the market this discussion gives a very accurate picture of where we find ourselves at this interesting point in the pricing cycle.
What emerges is a market where the most skilful underwriters are going to be able to differentiate themselves and one where caution and a focus on margin is the order of the day in some segments, but in others there are still clear opportunities for growth.
But it’s after the day-to-day market questions have been dealt with that this discussion comes into its own.
Jason is an advocate of the digital revolution that is transforming the globally syndicated insurance market in which his business operates and our discussion around facilitisation, fast follow and other digitally-enhanced forms of underwriting is insightful and enlightening.

It is becoming clear that all business leaders now need a comprehensive strategy on how to engage with profound structural changes in the way business is being placed and Jason is eloquent and unambiguous on this theme.
Our broad and frank discussion also covers other emerging big themes such as nascent AI exposures - and plenty more besides.
Jason is an underwriter through and through and this makes for a fast-moving and lively exchange.
I can highly recommend a listen
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens:
https://www.advantagego.com

There’s a lot of received wisdom in our industry.
You know, the sorts of things that we tell each other often enough that we all begin to accept them as true without really questioning the assumptions behind them with rigour.
Here are three common ones: you have to have meaningful scale if you want to get involved in Reinsurance, or open up operations in the London Market or the US.
This podcast is with the leader of a business that is a repudiation of most of the canons contained in the book of received insurance wisdom.
He leads a business that has grown to write around $700mn in gross premiums across a broad base, diversified by line and geography in both insurance and reinsurance, while maintaining very healthy profitability throughout the cycle.
Waleed Jabsheh is the CEO of IGI and this podcast highlights the very singular path that IGI has trodden on its way to success.
What emerges in this detailed discussion is in many ways a picture of a bold and ambitious company with representation in all the major global insurance jurisdictions.
But it is also a company that is at its core relatively conservative, looking to play in areas it knows and understands well and leaving the unknown territories of the bleeding edge for others to explore and map out before it takes a view.
IGI is still very much a family firm, but it is also one that is publicly-traded and listed in the US.
Any apparent contradiction in the above is explained by Waleed in this broad and deep interview, in which we are treated to a very strong common sense analysis of the opportunities and threats facing the global insurance and reinsurance market of today.
Waleed is very calm, clear and unambiguous in his style and makes for an excellent interviewee
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens:
https://www.advantagego.com

Today’s podcast is with someone who has one of the biggest and most important and influential jobs in our industry, yet you wouldn’t necessarily know that if you spoke to him.
As the CEO of Hannover Re Clemens Jungsthöfel may be carrying a very large reinsurance stick, but he speaks very softly.
He is approachable and someone who inspires trust. You get the feeling you could tell him anything, or come to him with a very delicate problem and he would neither be shocked nor would judge you too harshly, but just calmly help in any way he could and point you in the right direction.
Clemens personifies a very clear continuum from the reinsurance leaders who came before him and a listen to a discussion with him goes a long way to understand the enduring success of the reinsurer he and his predecessors have managed to build.
And what they have constructed is an all-permeating reinsurance culture that works for the real world.
As we head down to Monte Carlo this podcast covers everything you would expect it to.
We examine the state of market, and Hannover Re’s positioning within it, in great depth and we debate some of the hottest topics of the day, most pressingly the emergence of AI into the global risk environment.
But what I think will endure after time erodes the relevance of what we are discussing is a timeless sense of who my interviewee is and the institution he represents.
Approachable and friendly, calm, strong, knowledgeable, consistent, measured, flexible, responsive and pragmatic are all words that come to mind.
And I think we can all agree these are absolutely the qualities we are all looking for when we are buying reinsurance.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens:
https://www.advantagego.com