by Stuart Roberts
For more than three decades, Bermuda has played a huge role in helping the world cope with the unpredictable devastation wreaked by hurricanes.
In turn, this has helped Bermuda build a crucial pillar to its economy by establishing itself as the world’s risk capital.
The historical roots of our global (re)insurance market stem from Hurricane Andrew, which hit South Florida as a catastrophic category 5 hurricane in August 1992.
In Andrew’s aftermath, eight highly capitalised property catastrophe reinsurers were established in Bermuda, offering much needed capacity, particularly in a Florida insurance market where prices were rising sharply.
These include RenaissanceRe, which has since grown to become the world’s fourth largest reinsurer, and Partner Re, which likewise continues to be an important global participant.
As a global leader, Bermuda’s reinsurance market consistently grew over time, enhancing its relevance and helping to close protection gaps for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. For example, following the devastating hurricanes of Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005, the market grew substantially.
Today, Bermuda consistently holds about one-third of global reinsurance capacity, and is a premier hub for catastrophe reinsurance, Insurance-Linked Securities and most recently, InsurTech companies. According to the latest figures, the island’s internationally respected, independent and integrated financial services regulator, the Bermuda Monetary Authority supervises more than 1,200 (re)insurance companies managing $1.9 trillion in assets.
Someone who experienced much of this exciting period of growth firsthand was Stephen Weinstein, the founder and CEO of Mangrove Property Insurance, whose career began at Wall Street in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
In between those roles, Mr Weinstein has two decades experience as a senior executive and
was an executive committee member at RenaissanceRe.
Mr Weinstein is also a past chair of the Bermuda Business Development Agency, where he guided important strategic initiatives to support Bermuda’s position as a premier international financial hub.
“Over my career I have seen Bermuda build decades of strength in natural catastrophe risk management,” Mr Weinstein said.
“As a market, Bermuda has invested in a superior understanding of climate-driven perils like tropical windstorms.
“Consistently following disruptive natural catastrophes, the Bermuda market has responded quickly. No one understands the risks of hurricanes and other extreme weather events better than the experts in the Bermuda reinsurance market, and no one has a better track record of honouring their claims promises than the companies here. The historical default rate in Bermuda’s third-party market is literally zero.”
Helping vulnerable communities rebuild
“Bermuda is the best place in the world to capitalise, operate and domicile global business-to-business technical strategies,” Mr Weinstein said.
“As a global leader in property insurance and reinsurance, Bermuda plays a vital role in helping to close the protection gap for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.”
As former chair of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Mr Weinstein knows about the importance of protecting the natural environment.
“Bermuda has been leading on climate for 400 years and had the first-ever piece of legislation passed in the western world to protect an endangered species, for sea turtles in the early 1600s,” he said.
“Today, part of what BIOS does is share the results of its research with the Bermuda’s (re)insurance market as a public good but also to enhance the market’s understanding of hurricanes.”
BIOS’ chief operating officer, Dr Mark Guishard, expounded further upon on the important partnership between Bermuda’s scientific community and its global (re)insurance market.
“BIOS has been engaging with the local risk market for over 30 years, since Hurricane Andrew’s devastating impact led to questions about storms and climate,” Dr Guishard said.
“Through our science/business partnership, the Risk Prediction Initiative, we’ve focused attention on trends and variability of hurricanes, severe weather and winter storms.
“This has led to meaningful breakthroughs that have resulted in adjustments of views of risk, and updates to catastrophe modelling methods.”
The Bermuda/Florida Trading Partnership
This is one of the most important trading relationships in the world and is estimated to be valued at
approximately $60 to $65 billion annually.
Mr Weinstein said: “I have no doubt the post-Andrew Florida homeowners’ market would not exist without Bermuda. But I think the reverse is true, in that Bermuda’s market leadership begins with
its unique access to the world’s peak risk, which is Florida Property.”
In 2025, Mr Weinstein became founder and CEO of Mangrove Property Insurance Company.
“We launched Mangrove in part to reflect a partnership ethos with reinsurers, particularly Bermuda-based reinsurers,” he said.
“We reflect in our very name that we put down roots in both of my homes. Mangroves are resilient, adaptable, and essential to the protection of vulnerable coastlines.
“These unique trees thrive in challenging conditions, saltwater, shifting tides and low-oxygen
environments yet they grow strong, stabilise the shoreline, and create safe havens for life to flourish.”
“It’s part of our core identity and competitive advantage that our leadership team has unique strong relationships with some of the world’s leading reinsurers, who are disproportionately resident in
Bermuda,” Mr Weinstein said.
“The part of my strategy that I have the most conviction in is, I know our partners in the reinsurance
community will support us.
“In our inaugural year, we bought more reinsurance than any Florida start-up ever, and we believe we bought deeper in the tail with real protection than any Florida home-owners carrier.
“We are trying to reflect both the expertise of the Mangrove team but also the information we glean in partnership with our reinsurers.
“When Mangrove rebuilds a home in Florida, we want to build-back better. Our white labelled Grove Repair Solution is structured to reflect both excellent claim service as well as the insights that we glean in part from our partnership with reinsurers including Bermuda reinsurers.”
Mangrove Insurance has been approved by Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation to provide property and casualty insurance to Florida homeowners.
To learn more, visit www.mangrove-fl.com.
