On the Optimality of Reinsurance Forms

Reinsurance is an important ingredient in the risk management of insurance companies. Over the last decades there has been an enormous academic activity on identifying optimal reinsurance forms under given objectives and constraints. At the same time, in practice additional factors and constraints play a role that is sometimes difficult to formalize. In this talk some recent developments in trying to narrow the gap between academic research and practical viewpoints on the topic will be discussed, with a particular emphasis on the role of capital. This will also lead to the identification of the potential attractiveness of some non-standard reinsurance forms