One involves reinsurance sold by General Re for years to a professional-liability insurer in the state of Virginia, now bust and with unpaid liabilities.
The organization running my Virtus training was the liabilityinsurer of the Catholic Church, which certainly had first-hand knowledge of the damage sex-offender scandals can do to a once-revered institution.
Reinsurance is a process whereby an insurance company spreads its risk by transferring a portion of a policy's liability to another insurer, which keeps part of the premium.
To make sure that a premium paid today can pay for a benefit promised for tomorrow, an insurer determines the amount it will need for future benefits, marks that amount as a liability, and puts aside funds to pay for it.