Ep142 Luke Tanzer CEO RiverStone International: Freeing live underwriters to work the hardening market

Today we have a live market where reinsurance capacity has dried
up and investors are utterly fatigued or are openly on strike,
and so every dollar of spare capital feels twice as valuable as
it did last year But at the same time we have a highly
sophisticated legacy market that is well capitalised and, because
of its relatively solid recent track record, has access to more
funding if it needs it. Also legacy infrastructure is probably
better equipped to handle anything the live market can throw at
it than at any time in its history. Surely in today’s market
every live dollar than can be freed up to write new business at
tomorrow’s better prices, will be freed up? Now is clearly a
great time to be talking to today’s guest. Luke Tanzer is CEO of
RiverStone International, a business at the heart of the Lloyd’s
and UK company legacy market. RiverStone has a new owner, fresh
capital and focus and ambitious international expansion plans.
Luke is one of the most engaging members of the legacy community
and if you haven’t met him before, I think you’ll find him
incredibly insightful and refreshing. And if you still have any
outdated ideas about what run-off is in the 2020s, a few minutes
in Luke’s company will set you straight. Given what is happening
in the live market, Luke and his peers’ profiles are very likely
to be raised a notch or two in the next couple of years as excess
demand seeks out his capital and expertise, so get ahead of
everyone else and listen on. NOTES A couple of unexplained
abbreviations. RITC is reinsurance to close, a key part of the
Lloyd’s three-year accounting process. DD is of course due
diligence. LINKS We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank this Episode’s
advertising supporter Oxbow Partners https://oxbowpartners.com