- contact@insightcede.com
A practical case for running the ceded desk on its own workbench — instead of spreadsheets and bordereaux by email, or a module inside the policy or claims system.
Written for CFOs, CROs and heads of reinsurance. The questions a buying committee actually asks: what goes wrong today, what changes, what it does not do, and how long it takes.
None of these are anyone’s fault. They are what happens when the outwards programme is run from a workbook and an inbox.
A cession says the contract responds; nobody is owed anything until the reinsurer is billed. In a spreadsheet the gap between ceding and billing is invisible, and money sits in it for quarters.
A layer that has eroded has consumed capacity and owes a reinstatement premium. A workbook that tracks one and not the other reports cover the carrier no longer has, at a price it did not pay.
When the policy system computes a ceded figure and the reinsurance workbook computes another, every month-end begins with reconciling them — and every board pack carries the one that won.
Statements struck in a workbook, attached to an email, acknowledged or not. Chasers written from scratch. The trail is somebody’s sent folder.
Most carriers run the ceded desk one of two ways. Here is what each gets right, and what it cannot do.
| Spreadsheets & bordereaux by email | A module inside the policy or claims system | InsightCede | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where a cession comes from | Copied from extracts, re-keyed monthly | Only the transactions of the host system — a policy module cannot cede a claim, a claims module has no home for premium | Policy and claim transactions from both systems, ceded by one engine |
| Which treaty year, in what order | A formula, a person’s judgement | Often fixed to the host’s own year | Risks-attaching or losses-occurring from the contract; inuring order read, never assumed |
| Reinstatements | Counted by hand, often not priced | Varies | Finite, priced pro rata from the loss date, derived from the ledger |
| Net | One of several versions | Owned by the host, contested by finance | Derived once and published as a read; never written back |
| Notices, cash calls, chasers | Written from scratch when someone remembers | Rarely in scope | Drafted by an agent with the evidence, held until a person releases them |
| Credit and Schedule F | Assembled at year end | Rarely in scope | Concentration watched continuously; Schedule F drafted from the ledger with what is missing named |
| Audit trail | File versions and a sent folder | The host’s audit log | Every decision, run and release recorded, with who prepared and who decided |
Not features — the operating differences.
The analyst opens a queue of decisions with their evidence and drafts — the chaser, the notice, the statement — instead of a blank email and three extracts.
Every cession is computed the same way from the contract, with a note on every outcome. Nobody re-derives net at month end.
Cash calls go when a paid loss crosses the threshold, not with the quarterly account; chasers go when an item ages, not when someone notices.
Concentration against your limit, ratings and the news on each reinsurer, turned into a proposal — collateral or a limit change — for a person to decide.
We would rather you heard it here than in month two.
Cede cedes what underwriting and claims report. If your policy and claims systems are not InsightUW and InsightCW, they need to send the same two event contracts — a project, not a setting.
Everything starts at Draft or Ask first, and the tenant ceiling stops at Ask first unless you raise it. Expect a person to answer every decision for months; that is the point.
Cede does not receive limits profiles or aggregates, and does not price cover. The renewal pack carries experience and cost of cover, not modelled exposure.
Retrocession, aggregate deductibles and stop-loss are in the contract vocabulary and not implemented. Facultative placement stays in underwriting.
Run both in parallel for one period close; compare; switch.
Deploy into your cloud on Postgres with your sign-in. Load the programme: treaties, layers, panel shares, reinsurers.
Connect the policy and claims transactions. Backfill the open years; check every “nothing ceded” reason.
Reconcile the position, recoverables and bordereaux against the workbook for one period. Explain every difference.
Close a period in Cede: strike, send, chase. The agents prepare; your team answers every decision.
Retire the workbook for the closed period. Review the agreement rates; leave the dial where the evidence says.