Helios Re
The fictional reinsurer that serves as the running example throughout this site — its profile, objectives, portfolio, and the trial data we use for every calculation.
Helios Re is a fictional specialty reinsurer that serves as the running example throughout this site. Every contract structure, every metric calculation, every code example, and every interactive visualization uses Helios Re’s portfolio. If you see a number on this site, it traces back to the data on this page.
Company profile
Section titled “Company profile”| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Helios Re Ltd. |
| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Specialty | Property catastrophe reinsurance |
| Geographies | North America, Caribbean, Europe, Japan |
| Perils covered | Hurricane, earthquake, European windstorm |
| Business model | Traditional reinsurer with some ILS participation |
| Annual premium income | ~$250M (modelled portfolio) |
| Capital base | ~$800M |
| Employees | ~120 |
Helios Re is a mid-sized reinsurer — large enough to maintain a diversified multi-peril, multi-geography portfolio, but small enough that every contract matters to the aggregate risk profile. This makes it ideal for demonstrating portfolio-level analytics where individual contracts have visible marginal impact.
Business relationships
Section titled “Business relationships”| Entity | Role | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| SunCoast Insurance | Cedent | Multi-peril US insurer (HU + EQ); largest cedent |
| Pacific Mutual | Cedent | California-based insurer; primary EQ exposure |
| Baltica Insurance | Cedent | Northern European insurer; windstorm exposure |
| Atlas Cat Fund | ILS fund / Cedent | Alternative capital partner; also cedent for C6 |
| NorthStar Re | Retro provider | Provides retrocession protection to Helios Re |
| Meridian Brokers | Broker | Primary broker relationship |
Portfolio
Section titled “Portfolio”Helios Re’s portfolio consists of six contracts chosen to illustrate different contract structures, perils, geographies, and inter-contract relationships. The portfolio is intentionally small — six contracts rather than thousands — so that every calculation can be verified by hand.
| Contract | Type | Cedent | Peril | Geography | Terms | Participation | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | CatXoL | SunCoast Ins. | Hurricane | FL, USA | $30M xs $10M, 1 reinst | 14.5% | $14M |
| C2 | AggXoL | SunCoast Ins. | Earthquake | CA/AZ | $10M xs $15M aggregate | 20% | $5M |
| C3 | AggXoL | SunCoast Ins. | All US | USA | $50M xs $300M (inures C1, C2) | 10% | $8M |
| C4 | CatXoL | Pacific Mutual | Earthquake | CA, USA | $10M xs $3M, 1 reinst | 25% | $13M |
| C5 | Quota Share | Baltica Ins. | Windstorm | EU | 25% cession | 30% | $15M |
| C6 | CatXoL | Atlas Cat Fund | Earthquake | Japan | $30M xs $20M, 2 reinst | 15% | $15M |
| Total | $70M |
The participation is the share of each layer that Helios Re holds — reinsurance layers are typically split across a panel of reinsurers, and Helios Re is one participant. By convention, this site computes a contract’s standalone metrics at 100% (the full layer), and applies participation only when contracts are rolled up into the portfolio. The terms and premium above are likewise stated at the 100% layer level. See Financial modelling for how participation enters as the final term.
Why this portfolio
Section titled “Why this portfolio”The six contracts are designed to demonstrate:
- Geographic diversification — US, Europe, Japan (low cross-region correlation)
- Peril diversification — hurricane, earthquake, windstorm
- Structure diversity — excess-of-loss (per-occurrence), quota share (proportional), AggXoL (per-trial)
- Multi-contract cedent — SunCoast cedes three contracts (C1, C2, C3), with C3 inuring C1 and C2 to prevent double recovery
- Shared underlying events — SunCoast and Pacific Mutual both see CA EQ events at different loss scales
- Inuring — C3’s subject is SunCoast’s total net of C1 and C2 recoveries — the centerpiece for teaching contract dependencies
- Hand-computable numbers — all parameters are round numbers for easy mental arithmetic
A seventh contract, C7 (Trident Re Caribbean Hurricane CatXoL, $20M xs $10M), is introduced in the marginal pricing section as a candidate for portfolio addition.
Where Helios Re appears
Section titled “Where Helios Re appears”| Chapter | What’s introduced |
|---|---|
| Foundations | Company profile, market position, business relationships |
| Analytics Toolkit | Trial data, contract application, risk metrics, pricing |
| Financial Modelling | Term-by-term contract compositions, worked loss transformations |
| Applications | Full portfolio pricing, marginal analysis, application outputs |