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Competitive conditions reinforce facultative as vital part of reinsurance strategy: Aon. Why facultative reinsurance is moving from a tactical purchase to a strategic growth tool for insurers, explains the global CEO of facultative at Aon's Reinsurance Solutions. Key points: Clients using fac as strategic growth tool Facilities bridge certainty, flexibility and growth Digital capabilities reduce friction, drive adoption Facultative reinsurance is becoming a more strategic part of insurers' growth plans as they look to expand without putting excessive strain on their balance sheets. That's the view of Nick Fraccalvieri, global head of facultative at Aon's Reinsurance Solutions. He says insurers can use fac not simply to cover individual risks, but as a way to support growth while managing the additional exposure that expansion creates. "Every time they do that [expand], they expose the balance sheet a little bit more than is perhaps desirable," Fraccalvieri told Monte Carlo Today. "The best way to grow efficiently is by buying facultative and utilising it as a lever to continue to grow and mitigate exposures, and not to overload the company's balance sheet." With competition across the insurance and reinsurance markets intense and reinsurers continuing to report profitable combined ratios, Fraccalvieri said fac capacity was plentiful and the cost of cover "quite competitive". Bringing fac and treaty together Aon is encouraging clients to think about treaty and facultative strategy together as they approach renewals rather than treating the two as separate purchasing decisions. Fraccalvieri said clients preparing for 2027 renewals could set their treaty strategy knowing that facultative capacity was available to manage certain exposures separately. "Aon is in a great position to help our clients consider all forms of capital, and so we can work with them beyond just a single transaction to develop an optimal risk transfer strategy that aims to respond with flexibility to all their needs and become an enabler of top line growth," he said. "Those who view risk transfer in this way will be thinking how to utilise facultative in connection with treaty, and also with insurance-linked securities and parametric solutions." he added. The approach allows insurers to consider where individual risks could be removed from the treaty programme and handled facultatively, or via another form of capital, giving them another lever as they decide how to deploy their capital and pursue growth. Aon is also seeing growing interest in cedent facultative facilities that allow cedants to secure facultative capacity and agree terms and counterparties in advance to provide flexible access to cover, rather than renegotiating new transactions throughout the year. Such facilities can allow clients to "crystallise the counterparty", keep the same reinsurer throughout the year and gain greater control over what they buy, Fraccalvieri said. To help promote this risk transfer strategy, Aon recently launched an insight series focused on the value facilities bring to insurers, which was shared with over 25,000 clients and resulted in more than 17,000 subscribers. "With facilities we can structure bespoke solutions, from single product and geography, to complex multi-line and global solutions.," he added. Fraccalvieri said that Aon's scale, analytics, and global relationships and insights are key in driving the development of innovative solutions, pointing to the 1,000+ colleagues Aon has working on facultative across more than 40 offices globally, who help with the intermediation of upwards of $6 billion in fac premium. "I don't think there are many brokers that can sit down with their clients and articulate a full global facility that is aligned to their particular needs," he noted. Removing the friction One obstacle to wider use remains the administrative intensity of facultative placements. "It's very frictional, very intense in terms of management," Fraccalvieri said. Aon is seeking to digitise more of the placement process. From January 2027, its trading platform is expected to be able to ingest client information regardless of the format in which it arrives. By mid-to-late 2027, the broker hopes the technology will further help guide brokers towards markets suited to particular products and risks. "As we remove friction, as we make it more efficient, the benefits will be felt by our clients, who will be even more attracted to facultative capacity as a result," he said. Data shaping strategy Data generated through placements is also giving Aon a broader view of clients' portfolios, including where they are writing business, the classes involved and whether exposures are primary or excess, property or casualty. Some clients do not collect or analyse their information in the same way, Fraccalvieri said, allowing Aon in some cases to provide a portfolio-level view they do not have themselves. That data can also help identify market trends earlier and adjust advice as conditions change. "The quicker we can adapt, the quicker we can advise our clients to do the right thing at the right time," he said. For him, the underlying proposition comes back to growth. Insurers need to continue looking for new opportunities without allowing expansion to place excessive strain on their balance sheets. "There are two ways to do that - either you expose your balance sheet into the unknown, or you utilise facultative as a way to mitigate that exposure, he said." Nick Fraccalvieri is the global CEO of facultative at Aon's Reinsurance Solutions. He can be reached at: [email protected] Editor's picks. 5 September 2026 4 September 2026 3 September 2026

AIG executive chair and former CEO Zaffino set to exit for Palantir. AIG said early Wednesday that its former chief executive officer and current executive chair Peter Zaffino will be leaving the board effective Sept. 15 to join Palantir Technologies Inc. as global head of financial services. Zaffino had just transitioned to the position of executive chair on June 1. Prior to that, he had been AIG CEO since taking over in March 2021, succeeding Brian Duperreault. Eric Anderson, most recently a member of Aon's executive committee, became the AIG's CEO on June 1. AIG announced the succession plan in January. Zaffino will assume a role with AIG as senior advisor, the company said. To take his place on the board, AIG said John Rice, lead independent director, will serve as chair when Zaffino departs. Rice in a statement said AIG under Zaffino's leadership "strengthened its competitive position and created significant long-term value for shareholders." "On behalf of the AIG Board of Directors, we are grateful that AIG will continue to benefit from Peter's guidance and advice." Rice added. Rice has been lead independent director at AIG since the start of 2023. Previously, he was non-executive chairman of GE Gas Power from 2018 to 2020. Rice was president and CEO of the GE Global Growth Organization for seven years. Analytics software and data integration company Palantir said Zaffino will "drive growth and transformational impact across Palantir's financial services business, including insurance companies, banks, asset managers, private equity firms, and other financial institutions" once he starts at the company on Jan. 15, 2027. "Peter has spent his career challenging inertia and rejecting incrementalism within large enterprises. We partnered to deploy our products to create actual alpha within one of the most interesting and complex institutions in the world. We are fortunate that he is joining us," said Alex Karp, co-founder and CEO of Palantir. Under Zaffino, AIG developed a partnership with Palantir to establish an "agentic AI ecosystem" to improve the underwriting process at the insurer. Zaffino had set some expectations from using AI agents but later said its capabilities were much greater than anticipated. AIG recently launched Lloyd's Syndicate 2479 in a partnership with Amwins and Blackstone, marking the first time AIG deployed gen AI for a special purpose vehicle (SPV). With Palantir, large language models were used to determine whether Amwin's program portfolio aligned with the risk appetite of Syndicate 2479. Zaffino said AIG has a "strong pipeline of SPV opportunities." Was this article valuable? Chad is National News Editor at Insurance Journal. He has been a journalist since 2000, with a focus on the insurance industry since 2007, reporting on trends and coverage in most lines of insurance as well as natural catastrophes, modeling, regulation, legislation, and litigation. Chad can be reached at [email protected]

Aon appoints Piers Johansen as new leader for UK transaction advisory services. 02 September 2026 Consultancy.uk Piers Johansen has become the new leader for Aon's UK transaction advisory wing. He takes on the role after holding a variety of senior positions within the business, as well as previous roles at J.P. Morgan, Skadden, and The Takeover Panel. Speaking on the appointment, Michael Carr, CEO of Aon's M&A and Transaction Solutions (AMATS), said, "Helping clients to identify and capture value in event-driven and portfolio situations through Aon's Risk Capital and Human Capital capabilities is core to the AMATS business strategy. Piers' experience in the legal, investment banking and insurance industries brings a breadth of perspective and leadership that can address clients' needs innovatively." Johansen succeeds Anka Taylor and Ian McCaw, who co-led the AMATS UK business for two years while continuing to act in client-serving leadership positions in M&A insurance broking and transaction advisory, respectively, for AMATS in EMEA. He now takes on the AMATS UK leadership role having held a variety of senior positions within the business. Johansen joined Aon in 2015, bringing extensive legal and financial services experience, including roles as an M&A lawyer at Skadden, where he completed a two-year secondment as assistant secretary to The Takeover Panel, and as managing director and associate general counsel within J.P. Morgan's Investment Bank in London. He will report to AMATS CEO Carr, and will be based in London. Rob Kemp, CEO, Commercial Risk, UK, Aon, added, "Harnessing different parts of Commercial Risk, as well as the wider business is central to Aon's strategy to go further and faster for the firm's clients in addressing their risk and people challenges. Our AMATS business continues to play a key role developing new opportunities and partnering with Aon colleagues to deliver client value. I am confident that Piers' appointment will help accelerate this even more." Aon is a British-American professional services firm that offers a range of risk-mitigation products, via more than 66,000 employees across 120 countries.