Helios Re
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, 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 | Florida-based insurer; largest single cedent |
| Pacific Mutual | Cedent | California-based insurer; earthquake exposure |
| NorthStar Re | Retro provider | Provides retrocession protection to Helios Re |
| Meridian Brokers | Broker | Primary broker relationship |
| Atlas Cat Fund | ILS fund | Alternative capital partner for sidecars |
Portfolio
Section titled “Portfolio”Helios Re’s portfolio consists of five contracts chosen to illustrate different contract structures, perils, and geographies. The portfolio is intentionally small — five contracts rather than thousands — so that every calculation can be verified by hand.
| Contract | Type | Cedent | Peril | Geography | Terms | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | CatXoL | SunCoast Ins. | Hurricane | FL, USA | $30M xs $20M, 1 reinst | $8.5M |
| C2 | CatXoL | Pacific Mutual | Earthquake | CA, USA | $25M xs $15M, 1 reinst | $6.2M |
| C3 | Quota Share | (syndicated) | Windstorm | EU | 25% cession | $4.8M |
| C4 | CatXoL | (syndicated) | Earthquake | Japan | $50M xs $25M, 2 reinst | $9.1M |
| C5 | AggXoL | SunCoast Ins. | Multi (US) | USA | $35M xs $40M aggregate | $5.4M |
| Total | $34.0M |
Why this portfolio
Section titled “Why this portfolio”The five 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-scenario)
- Non-trivial interactions — Contract 5 aggregates across the same US perils as Contracts 1 and 2, creating portfolio dynamics that are invisible in standalone analysis
- Hand-computable numbers — all parameters are round numbers for easy mental arithmetic
Where Helios Re appears
Section titled “Where Helios Re appears”| Chapter | What’s introduced |
|---|---|
| Foundations | Company profile, market position, business relationships |
| Quantification | Scenario data, contract application, risk metrics, pricing |
| Engineering | Operator compositions, code implementations, verified outputs |
| Practice | Full portfolio pricing, marginal analysis, application outputs |