Athene Life Re Overview

Athene Life Re Ltd. (“ALRe”), a Bermuda-based reinsurance company, was incorporated in 2009 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Athene Holding Ltd. ("Athene Holding") and was its first operating company. ALRe’s core business is fixed annuity reinsurance, through which ALRe partners with life and annuity insurance companies to develop solutions to their capital requirements, enhance their presence in the retirement market and improve their financial results.

Since its incorporation, ALRe has become a leader in the fixed annuity reinsurance market. The specific liabilities ALRe targets to reinsure include multi-year guarantee annuities ("MYGA"), fixed indexed annuities, traditional one-year guarantee fixed deferred annuities, immediate annuities and institutional products.

ALRe offers quota share reinsurance of future premiums (“flow reinsurance”) and reinsurance of blocks of existing business (“block reinsurance”), as well as product co-development services for new projects. Athene Holding and ALRe commenced operations in June of 2009 upon entering into two flow reinsurance agreements with a highly rated U.S. life insurance company. One of those agreements was related to co-development of a MYGA product.

While ALRe’s current reinsurance agreements are with U.S. life insurers, the company is expanding and working on many projects with a global reach.

ALRe is one of Bermuda’s largest annuity reinsurance companies as measured by capital base and received a rating of “A+” by S&P and Fitch. It also holds a long-term counterparty and financial strength rating of "A" from A.M. Best and was rated “A1” by Moody’s in 2022. Having now completed a number of transactions with multiple reinsurance counterparties, ALRe has served an important role in Athene Holding’s strategic development.

Why Bermuda?

Bermuda offers ALRe a sophisticated and robust regulatory environment in which to do business. The Bermuda Monetary Authority ("BMA"), established in 1969, supervises, regulates and inspects the financial institutions in Bermuda. For more information, please visit: www.bma.bm. Bermuda has long been on the leading edge of the insurance and reinsurance industry. In early 2015, the United States National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") approved Bermuda as a Qualified Jurisdiction for reinsurance purposes, meaning that credit for reinsurance collateral requirements may be reduced for Bermuda insurers depending on relevant law in the ceding company's state of domicile. In 2016, Bermuda also obtained Solvency II equivalency, placing the jurisdiction's commercial insurers on a level playing field when competing for, and writing, business in the European Union.

In addition to offering an industry-leading regulatory environment, Bermuda is one of the world’s largest reinsurance markets; in 2020 the BMA reported that Bermuda reinsurance companies’ collective total assets amounted to more than $1.186 trillion with capital and surplus of $313 billion)1. Bermuda is home to a growing number of life, or ‘Long Term’, reinsurance companies and ALRe’s growth has contributed to Bermuda’s emergent life reinsurance sector. Recent Bermuda figures place Long Term reinsurance total assets at approximately $666 billion with capital and surplus of approximately $97 billion.2.

Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Reinsurers Association

In June 2011, ALRe, along with five similarly situated reinsurers, formally organized the Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Reinsurers association ("BILTIR"). BILTIR, which has grown to over 60 members, serves as an official association representing the Long Term insurers and reinsurer group in Bermuda. The primary focus of BILTIR is to be an advocate for the life industry in Bermuda with respect to regulatory requirements and other issues related to the BMA, relative to various jurisdictions, and in general to provide a consistent and coherent voice for any concerns of the life industry in Bermuda.

For more information, please visit: www.biltir.bm

For more information on the Bermuda Re/insurance market see the following resources:

Bermuda Finance – Playing to Our Strengths – 2021/2022

Bermuda Re:+ILS Magazine – Why here, and why now? – April 6 2021

Bermuda Re:+ILS Magazine – The future looks bright for the long-term sector – March 23 2021

Bermuda Re:+ILS Magazine – How the BMA supervises Bermuda’s growing long-term life sector – March 17 2021

U.S Treasury Report: The Breadth and Scope of the Global Reinsurance Market and the Critical Role Such Market Plays in Supporting Insurance in the United States – December 2014


1. Source: Bermuda Monetary Authority 2020 Annual Report
2. Source: Bermuda Monetary Authority 2020 Annual Report