Bermuda life reinsurance in 2026: what it means for actuaries

In short

• Bermuda's long-term (life and annuity) insurance sector held $1.52 trillion of assets at the end of 2024, up 19% in a year. Deferred annuity reserves grew 33%.
• Bermuda is the largest offshore home for US life and annuity reinsurance. AM Best puts its share at more than 40% of all reserves ceded by US life and annuity writers in 2024.
• Regulators on both sides are watching closely. The BMA now approves every closed-block life reinsurance deal, and the NAIC's new AG 55 has US ceding companies testing these deals every year.
• For actuaries, that means demand for deal pricing, asset and ALM modelling, Bermuda capital reporting and cedent-side testing. The Bermuda Government's work permit policy has a fast track for actuaries.

A decade ago, asset-intensive life reinsurance in Bermuda was a much smaller niche. Today it is one of the main places where North American and, increasingly, Asian life insurance risk ends up. If you work in life and annuity, the Bermuda market affects your career even if you never move there: it shapes which deals your employer does, which skills are scarce and where the best-paid roles sit.

How big is it?

The Bermuda Monetary Authority's latest market report covers year-end 2024:

• Total assets of Bermuda's long-term insurers reached $1,518.2 billion, up 19.1% on the year.
• Insurance reserves were $1,294.0 billion, up 25.0%. Deferred annuities were the largest block at $453.8 billion, up 33.0%, followed by mortality at $314.3 billion and immediate longevity at $131.5 billion.
• The US accounted for 72.5% of insurance liabilities, up from 67.0% in 2022.
• Gross written premium was $200.1 billion and net income $26.3 billion.

AM Best's analysis shows how central Bermuda is for US companies. In a June 2025 report it found Bermuda held more than 40% of all reserves ceded by US life and annuity writers in 2024, and more than 60% of reserves ceded in deals that took effect in 2023 and 2024. Nearly 70% of reserves ceded offshore went to affiliated reinsurers.

That last point is changing. In August 2026 AM Best reported that offshore reinsurers held about 56% of ceded US annuity reserves in 2025. The 10 largest unaffiliated deals totalled more than $107 billion, against $35 billion in 2024, and unaffiliated deals outpaced affiliated ones for the first time in three years. Sidecars are part of that shift. Morningstar DBRS, as reported by the Royal Gazette, estimates assumed liabilities in Bermuda life and annuity sidecars at $375 billion, having grown about 32% a year since 2021.

Recent deals show where it is going

• Chariot Re, sponsored by MetLife and General Atlantic with Chubb as lead investor, launched in July 2025 with about $10 billion of structured settlement and group annuity liabilities.
• Talcott reinsured ¥550 billion (about $3.6 billion) of Japan Post Insurance payout annuities in 2025 and a further ¥100 billion in March 2026. In August 2026 it launched West Grove Re, a Bermuda sidecar with Goldman Sachs Asset & Wealth Management that has raised about $1 billion.
• Aflac Re Bermuda agreed its first external deal in March 2026, also with Japan Post.
• Athora completed its acquisition of Pension Insurance Corporation in the UK, agreed at about £5.7 billion, in March 2026, and plans to move its headquarters from Bermuda to the UK by late 2027.

Asia is the growth story to watch. The Bermuda life insurers' trade body says 82% of business ceded to its members comes from the US and 11% from Japan. Japan's Financial Services Agency has also proposed tighter oversight of reinsurance, covering collateral, concentration and stress testing, with final rules expected later in 2026.

The rules are tightening on both sides

In Bermuda

• Deal approval. Since January 2023, every closed-block life reinsurance transaction needs BMA approval. The BMA has said it will not approve a deal that the cedent's regulator is uncomfortable with. It also applies a high bar to affiliated or connected-party assets and collects asset data at individual security level.
• Capital and liquidity. Changes in force since 31 March 2024 require BMA pre-approval for new use of the scenario-based approach, under which the discount rate is set by the insurer's own asset portfolio, tested against prescribed interest rate scenarios and after deductions for default and downgrade costs. They also phase in new lapse and expense risk charges over 10 years, and require scenario-based approach users to hold a buffer of highly liquid assets.
• Stress testing and recovery plans. The BMA's 2025 stress test covered 106 long-term insurers with $1,169 billion of assets. The median solvency ratio fell from 270% to 215% after stress, and 71% of firms stayed above 150%. Recovery plan rules have applied to large insurers since May 2025.
• More to come. The BMA consulted in August 2026 on rules for internationally active insurance groups, with final rules expected in the fourth quarter, and in September 2026 opened a consultation, running to 15 December, on a resolution framework for failing insurers.
• Tax. Bermuda's 15% corporate income tax applies to Bermuda entities of multinational groups with annual revenue of €750 million or more, for fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2025. The Tax Credits Act 2025 adds a substance-based tax credit for groups in scope of the tax, with one part based on Bermuda payroll and another on Bermuda business premises costs.

In the US

• AG 55. The NAIC adopted Actuarial Guideline LV in August 2025. From year-end 2025, US insurers that cede large blocks of asset-intensive business to reinsurers that do not file US-style actuarial memoranda must cash-flow test the reserves after reinsurance and assess counterparty risk. Regulators prefer an attribution analysis explaining the reserve reduction, although it is not required in every case. About 80 ceding companies filed the first reports in 2026. AG 55 is a disclosure requirement and does not by itself add reserves, but regulators are acting on what the first reports show. In August 2026 the NAIC's Financial Condition (E) Committee asked for a new risk-based capital charge for recapture risk on business ceded outside reciprocal jurisdictions, a status Bermuda holds, aimed at year-end 2027. We cover it in our regulation piece.
• Federal attention. A Federal Reserve staff note in March 2025 described how some insurers use regulatory differences between the US and Bermuda. In 2026 the US Treasury joined discussions with the NAIC on offshore life reinsurance and private credit.

None of this is slowing the market much. It is making it more technical, and that is good news for actuaries who can do the technical work.

What this means for actuaries

The skills in demand follow the money and the regulation:

• Deal pricing and structuring. Block and flow reinsurance, sidecars and pension risk transfer all need actuaries who can price liabilities, model the assets behind them and explain the economics to investors.
• Asset and ALM modelling. On most annuity blocks the result now turns on the assets as much as the liabilities, and private credit, structured assets and illiquid investments make those assets harder to model. Actuaries who understand both sides of the balance sheet are scarce.
• Bermuda capital and reporting. The Economic Balance Sheet, BSCR, the scenario-based approach, liquidity stress tests and recovery planning all need experienced people. Every long-term insurer in Bermuda must also appoint a BMA-approved actuary.
• Cedent-side testing. AG 55 has created work at US ceding companies as well as at reinsurers.
• Asian business. As Japanese and other Asian cedents grow, experience with those products and regulators becomes valuable.

Working in Bermuda

• The market is small and international. Bermuda's 2024 employment survey counted 370 actuary jobs, 55 of them held by Bermudians. International business added 22 actuary jobs that year. The same survey puts the median gross income of full-time "other non-Bermudian" actuaries at $226,796, against $169,155 for all workers in international business.
• Work permits are quicker for actuaries. The Government's work permit policy, last revised in May 2026, includes a section for actuaries. Where the role needs an actuarial designation, the applicant has three or more years' relevant experience, the post was advertised, the application is complete, no statutory body needs to be consulted and the employer can prove the applicant's credentials, a new permit will be processed within 10 working days, as long as the employer emails the Department when it applies. The Government has since extended the fast track to 31 July 2027. Standard permits run for one to five years. The six-year term limit was scrapped in 2013.
• Tax. Bermuda has no personal income tax. Employers can deduct an employee share of payroll tax on a sliding scale from 0.25% to 12.5% for 2026/27, capped at $1 million of pay. Some employers pay the employee share themselves and treat it as a benefit.
• Pay. Bermuda roles rarely publish pay ranges, although pay transparency legislation the Government proposed in April 2026 would require a salary range in every job advert. For now the Government's employment survey above is the best public figure for actuarial pay on the island. Our own Bermuda pay figures by credential, experience and employer type put a Fellow with 6 to 9 years at about $190,000 base at a life and annuity insurer and $200,000 at a reinsurer, a little above the US. The bigger difference is the package: a bonus target of about 15 to 25% at insurers and 18 to 28% at reinsurers, and a housing allowance of about $2,000 to $6,000 a month, for about $242,000 to $310,000 a year all-in at a life and annuity insurer and $260,000 to $328,000 at a reinsurer, against about $209,000 to $218,000 base plus bonus at a US life and annuity insurer, before income tax. Consulting firms on the island pay well below that.

If you are weighing a move, our guide to moving to Bermuda as an actuary covers permits, deductions, housing, schools and tax at home. Both pieces are general information, not immigration, tax or legal advice, so check your own situation with a qualified adviser before you act.

Bermuda is one of our core markets. If you are curious about the island, or hiring there, let's talk.

Sources

• Government of Bermuda, Government Extends Actuary Work Permit Policy Until July 2027, 3 August 2026; Royal Gazette, Pay transparency legislation in the works, 14 April 2026.
• Bermuda Monetary Authority, Bermuda Long-term Insurance Market Analysis and Stress Testing Report, December 2025 (year-end 2024 data).
• BMA, Insights and Reflections on Asset Intensive Reinsurance in Bermuda, March 2025.
• AM Best, Bermuda Remains the Largest Offshore Life/Annuity Reinsurance Domicile, 30 June 2025.
• AM Best, Unaffiliated Offshore Reinsurance Deals Drive Asset-Intensive Reinsurance Market in 2025, 19 August 2026.
• Royal Gazette, Life reinsurance sidecar market quadruples in four years, 3 September 2026; Asian deals fuel Bermuda's life reinsurance growth, 2 April 2026; Japan to raise scrutiny of Bermuda reinsurance deals, 29 April 2026.
• MetLife, Chariot Re launch, 1 July 2025; Talcott, Japan Post Insurance transaction, 31 March 2026; Insurance Journal, West Grove Re, 4 August 2026; Athora, agreement to acquire PIC, July 2025; Athora, completion of PIC acquisition, 27 March 2026.
• Walkers, Bermuda enhances regulatory regime for insurers, March 2024; Appleby, Recovery planning for commercial insurers; Royal Gazette, BMA seeks tougher oversight for global insurance groups, 24 August 2026; BMA proposes framework for failing insurers, 23 September 2026; Bermuda Insurance Act 1978, section 26 (approved actuary).
• Government of Bermuda, Corporate Income Tax Act 2023; EY, Bermuda Tax Credits Act 2025, December 2025.
• WTW, Actuarial Guideline 55, September 2025; Willkie Farr, NAIC 2026 Summer National Meeting report, August 2026.
• Federal Reserve, FEDS Notes, 21 March 2025; Insurance Business, US Treasury joins scrutiny, May 2026.
• Government of Bermuda, Employment Briefs 2025 (2024 data); Work Permit Policy (revised 1 May 2026); Royal Gazette, Actuary work permit policy extended, 30 July 2026; Calculating Payroll Tax 2026-27; Bernews, Government to eliminate term limit policy, January 2013.
• Government of Bermuda, 2024 Employment Survey, detailed tabulations (Table 26).