Investment: being the insurer

Mods: I think that this thread should be in the monkey around category. Please move it if that is correct; Sorry.

I would like to explore investing in reinsurance. IN other words, I want to consider taking a diversified position in insuring against risk. Is there any such thing available on the non-institutional level?

9 Comments
 

buy some Berkshire Hathaway stock.

********************************* “The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.” - Oscar Wilde
 

Swiss Re, Partner Re, etc

A closed-end fund that invests in cat(astrophe) bonds - Pioneer's Diversified High Income Trust (HNW).

********************************* “The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.” - Oscar Wilde
 

Look at the reinsurers.

1- Best measure is how they are trading relative to Book Value.
2- Make sure they haven't had too much adverse loss development in their reserves 3- Profit

********************************* “The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.” - Oscar Wilde
 

Thank you guys for your feedback.

I am not really interested in equities. I am more interested in a pure play. The pure play, would tend to have less correlation with the US stock market and would therefore sit nice in a portfolio.

I am checking out the prospectus of Pioneer's Diversified High Income Trust (HNW). Looking at the assets in the portfolio, I do not see how these are cat bonds. Looks to me like mostly just regular high yield and corporate bonds.

 
Best Response

TOP 10 HOLDINGS (% of Portfolio) 1. Muteki Ltd. Cat Bond, Frn, 5/24/11 1.56% ***************************** 2. Atlas Reinsurance Plc FRN 1/10/11 Cat Bond 144A 1.34% ****************************** 3. GREEN VALLEY LTD 144A 1.34% 4. Residential Re FRN, 6/6/11 1.30% ************************************ 5. Successor II Ltd. Cat Bond, Frn, 4/6/10 1.29% *************************************88 6. Alliance One International Inc 10.0%, 7/15/16 1.19% 7. SUNGARD DATA TLB JP PR 1.19% 8. CALPINE CORP 1ST DIP CS PR 1.19% 9. Blue Fin Ltd FRN, 4/10/12 1.16% 10. Usi Holdings Corp. L+2.75%, 5/5/14 1.12%

SECTORS (% of Portfolio) 1. High Yield 35.3% 2. Bank Loans 28.2% 3. Event-Linked (cat bonds) 17.1% ****************************************************************** 4. Emerging Mkt/Int’l High Yield 16.3% 5. Mortgaged-Backed 3.2%

********************************* “The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.” - Oscar Wilde
 
veritas14TOP 10 HOLDINGS (% of Portfolio) 1. Muteki Ltd. Cat Bond, Frn, 5/24/11 1.56% ***************************** 2. Atlas Reinsurance Plc FRN 1/10/11 Cat Bond 144A 1.34% ****************************** 3. GREEN VALLEY LTD 144A 1.34% 4. Residential Re FRN, 6/6/11 1.30% ************************************ 5. Successor II Ltd. Cat Bond, Frn, 4/6/10 1.29% *************************************88 6. Alliance One International Inc 10.0%, 7/15/16 1.19% 7. SUNGARD DATA TLB JP PR 1.19% 8. CALPINE CORP 1ST DIP CS PR 1.19% 9. Blue Fin Ltd FRN, 4/10/12 1.16% 10. Usi Holdings Corp. L+2.75%, 5/5/14 1.12%

SECTORS (% of Portfolio) 1. High Yield 35.3% 2. Bank Loans 28.2% 3. Event-Linked (cat bonds) 17.1% ****************************************************************** 4. Emerging Mkt/Int’l High Yield 16.3% 5. Mortgaged-Backed 3.2%

thanks. don't know how I missed all of that. I guess I was looking at part of the prospectus that had all of those categories lumped into the corporate bond category. Say, how did you find this bond fund in the first place? Fund screeners on TD Ameritrade and ETrade do not let you screen the funds for catestrophic bond. I guess you just have to look through the prospectuses of high yield bond funds.

 

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********************************* “The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.” - Oscar Wilde

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