In partnership with global reinsurance giant Swiss Re, Reinsurance News hosted a retrospective roundtable around the 2026 annual meeting of the legacy insurance and reinsurance sector in Brighton earlier this month. Stakeholders from across the evolving space discussed opportunities, challenges, and key market trends.
The latest Reinsurance News Legacy Market Roundtable, in partnership with Swiss Re, was held on Monday May 11th around the 2026 IRLA Congress, a key meeting for the expanding run-off market.
On the day, 13 experienced legacy market participants representing acquirers, sellers, brokers, legal, and advisory, debated the maturity and strategic importance of the legacy market, while challenges and opportunities around execution, reinsurance market cycles, data, US casualty, and much more, were also explored.
The 90 minute session began with a market overview from Janic Schilling, Swiss Re’s Head of Legacy Origination, who described legacy as a “market in transition.”
“We are increasingly hearing about a more stable and sophisticated market, with solutions evolving to respond to changing and more complex client needs,” said Schilling. “There is increased activity when it comes to new endeavours and more innovative transaction structures to address rising complexity across the market. Interestingly, if you combine this with a legacy market that continues to grow by nature, this increased activity is not necessarily translating into a higher number of completed transactions. Does this reflect a more mature market, where execution discipline, strategic alignment, and balancing complexity with resilience are becoming increasingly important?”
Schilling also examined the prominence of legacy during hard and soft reinsurance market cycles, noting that with rates currently softening, reinsurers are focused on capital optimisation, strategic focus, and portfolio quality.
“This is exactly where we see legacy solutions playing an increasingly important role – helping clients proactively manage balance sheet resilience while enabling greater focus on strategic areas of the business,” said Schilling.
Adding: “If you compare these broader market trends with the perception of a more stable, sophisticated, and mature legacy market, the key question becomes whether the market is fully positioned to respond to these dynamics.
“Are we truly seeing a more strategic and more embedded legacy market, or is the broader re/insurance industry still primarily considering legacy as a tactical decision?”
With the scene set, participants debated whether legacy is truly being used as a strategic tool, with some stating that while the market is now more proactive than in the past, it is still quite reactive.
Later in the session, roundtable speakers explored the role of legacy within their organisations, and also how well the space is understood beyond core teams, and when retrospective solutions typically enter the conversation. One participant expressed surprise at the lack of awareness and understanding of the value and role of legacy solutions at some of the large carriers.
Barriers to execution and deal complexity were other hot topics during this year’s roundtable, with Andreas Schäfli, Head P&C Legacy, CUO P&C Reinsurance at Swiss Re, saying that, from his experience, the level of focus and commitment behind the transaction can impact deal execution.
“There are obviously sellers in the market with dedicated legacy teams and a very clear strategic approach to portfolio optimisation. But in many organisations, legacy is still something that is handled by a team that basically covers everything and then legacy gets added on top. The CFO suddenly says, ‘try to sell this book,’ and then two months later another priority or another crisis emerges, and the process loses momentum before it has really started.
“Interestingly, once a transaction actually reaches a more advanced stage — the data room is established, diligence is progressing, objectives are aligned — execution risk is often relatively low. The market today is sophisticated enough to execute complex solutions,” said Schäfli.
The conversation then switched to innovations in the market and notably the potential for syndication and collaboration, with one participant emphasising the importance of not being left behind by the live market. The session also explored some of the key challenges the legacy market is facing today, with a view to what participants would change internally or in the broader market as it continues to grow.
We’ll be releasing the full 2026 Reinsurance News Legacy Roundtable, in partnership with Swiss Re, in the coming weeks, which will include much more commentary from our sponsor and extensive insights from all of the other participants on the day.
