Reinsurance vet launches cat broker with unique ownership model

Risk transfer veteran Ted Blanch has introduced a new Florida-focused broker with a unique ownership model that he claims will lower costs and disrupt catastrophe reinsurance.

The start-up broker, COIN Re, claims that it will ensure its interests remain aligned with those of its clients by being structured in a way so that client investors will collectively own more than 50 percent of the company.

COIN Re will follow a set of basic broking goals and techniques. These include connecting clients with reinsurance opportunities for the limits sought, at the lowest market price; reducing frictional costs by lowering the bite taken by the broker; and actively intermediating the placement/underwriting of the reinsurance programs based on aggressive pursuit of the client’s interests.

“We’re here to fill a need,” said Blanch. “With COIN Re, we are creating a new paradigm that will both make insurers more profitable and reduce cost to consumers. We plan to be very aggressive in meaningfully reducing reinsurance premium and net cost for primary insurance companies.

“Previous attempts to co-op in this market have failed, either because of exposure imbalances, or because of inbuilt competition among the participants. The equity structure of COIN Re eliminates all these problems.”

Blanch was CEO of EW Blanch & Co from 1977 until 2000, and then formed Ted Blanch & Associates, a consultancy to the reinsurance industry.