Ace ups Brandywine reserves

Ace has released further details from the annual internal and biennial external reviews of the company's Brandywine run-off loss reserves, including asbestos and environmental liabilities:

As a result of the internal review, net loss reserves for the Brandywine operations remain unchanged, while the gross loss reserves increased by approximately $200m.

The conclusions of the external review provided estimates of ultimate gross and net Brandywine liabilities that are lower than the same study two years ago. As a result, the difference in net loss reserves between the internal and external studies has narrowed to approximately $100 million after-tax from $180 million after-tax two years ago.

Philip Bancroft, Ace chief financial officer, commented: "The evaluation process for our direct gross and ceded exposures is ground-up, detailed and methodical. The process to model our ceded exposures includes refined estimates of third party reinsurance after allocation of detailed account and policy level information. This approach allows a detailed assessment of the collectibility of our reinsurance recoverable asset. The external actuaries both reviewed our model and subsequently used it when developing their estimate."