Ep283 David Flandro Howden Re: Moving on from Vintage years, but nowhere near the floor

Most of the time most of the people working in insurance and reinsurance are way too busy doing their jobs to stop and think and engage with the big ideas that are driving the markets they operate in.
One of the great luxuries of being a journalist is that it is our day job to talk to the people with the big ideas and report back to you.
And these days with the podcast medium you get to be right in the room with me when I talk to those people and you can hear and learn for yourself first hand.
This 1st January reinsurance renewal pricing fell sharply: that’s interesting in itself, but it’s far more interesting to be able to talk to someone whose job it is to work out what made that happen and what this means for the rest of the year and beyond.
We can all see when it has rained but it’s far more useful to know what forces are driving the weather and get some idea of whether we need to pack umbrellas for the morning commute tomorrow.
David Flandro is the Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at Howden Re.
To put it simply he is one of the smartest people in our business and his job is to analyse and think hard about our sector and tell us and his clients what he sees.
And if you’ve heard him on the podcast before you’ll already know that he’s also great fun to spend time with.
Howden Re have an excellent 1.1 Renewal report out – it’s called Re-balancing. There’s a link to the report in the notes below.
I recommend you stop and download it now and give it quick read.
Then come back and listen to the podcast and then re-read the report.
It’s really comprehensive and will prime you for the year ahead in globally important topics, way broader than just insurance and reinsurance.
If your New Year’s Resolution was to learn more about how the industry you work in really works and how it really fits in with the global economy then this one is for you.
LINKS:
Howden Re’s Re-Balancing report can be found here: https://www.howdengroupholdings.com/sites/default/files/2025-12/howden-re-balancing-2026-FINAL.pdf
A shout out should also go the report authors, Julian Alovisi and Peter Evans.

We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com