Although the legacy market is increasingly viewed as a strategic tool rather than simply a reactive solution, with pockets of greater maturity and sophistication emerging, participants at the latest Reinsurance News Legacy Market Roundtable, in partnership with Swiss Re, stressed that the sector still has a predominantly reactive nature.
Held on the 11th of May 2026 around the IRLA Congress in Brighton, the Reinsurance News Legacy Market Roundtable is now available to download for free.
The roundtable brought together 13 senior figures from across the retrospective ecosystem, spanning acquirers, sellers, brokers, legal and advisory firms. Over a 90-minute session, participants debated the maturity of the legacy market, the influence of reinsurance market cycles, execution challenges, data quality and the outlook for US casualty business, among other themes.
Opening the discussion, Janic Schilling, Head of Legacy Origination, P&C Reinsurance at Swiss Re, put a question to the panel: “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?”
Responding, Jag Jass, Partner at Augment Risk, said that although rate softening has been visible in property, primary US casualty has been slower to move. “I think legacy is definitely becoming a strategic tool but is still reactive,” Jass said, adding that buyers and sellers are still working out how recent underwriting years in casualty will develop.
Charlotte Pritchard, UK CEO of RiverStone International, offered a similar view from the buy side: “My perspective from the buy side is that it is still quite reactive,” she said, though she noted the market has moved on from purely distressed scenarios towards capital planning and broader reserve protection.
Lu-ling Chng, Managing Director, Global Risk Solutions at reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, added: “There are pockets of maturity and development across the board,” with some long-standing global players using legacy as a genuine strategic and capital tool on both the buy and sell side, though this sophistication is not consistent across all cedents.
Participants also discussed execution challenges, including the need for greater buyer participation across different deal sizes, the reasons some transactions do not progress beyond the non-binding indication stage, and opportunities to improve deal structures. The conversation also explored the importance of strengthening long-term cedent relationships, highlighting an area where the legacy market still has room for development.
