Pacific Life Re wins InsuranceERM's award for re/insurer of the year for its focus on culture, wellbeing and innovation, along with a risk management system integrated across its entire business.

The firm says it measures success by examining three aspects: supporting its staff and local communities; meeting and exceeding the expectations of clients; and contributing to the evolution of the life reinsurance markets it participates in.

Looking after employees, who in turn look after clients, is an "absolute priority", the company says. Pacific Life Re has implemented a variety of wellbeing initiatives, such as wellbeing days to support a better work/life balance, and creating an open culture to de-stigmatise topics such as mental health.

"This culture of openness and psychological safety allows our teams to be innovative and suggest new ideas, which helps drive our innovative ambitions," says Vincent Lepez, managing director and leader of Pacific Life Re's European business unit.

The firm supports diversity and inclusion through a number of networks and regular events, a reverse mentoring scheme, and a "buddy" system for new employees.

Pacific Life Re supports local communities through donation-matching for charity fundraising, employee impact grants, volunteer action teams and more.

The focus on staff wellbeing includes career development. In 2022, the company launched a scheme to help its employees focus on career planning and navigate potential opportunities for career development, both horizontally and vertically.

Allowing hybrid (home and office-based) working has also helped the firm maintain relationships with clients, and enable it to recruit a more diverse team. "This has helped us recruit and retain employees and maintain a flexible and inclusive culture, all of which allows us to provide better services to our clients around the world," Lepez says.

With opportunities in the pension risk transfer (PRT) market booming, Pacific Life Re has been able to hire staff despite a competitive jobs market. During 2022, it expanded its pricing, business development and legal teams in its longevity business.

"These new teams are now well established in the organisation and so we're well placed to increase our quote footprint and support our clients in more opportunities. We're also working hard alongside our clients on improving processes and efficiency so we can best utilise our resources to add more value," Lepez says.

The group expanded into funded reinsurance in 2021, establishing the Global Funded Solutions team. This team continued to grow during 2022, and completed several deals with multiple counterparties during the year.

Pacific Life Re has also supported its flow treaty partner with an automated online pricing tool that can quote for pensioner and deferred schemes. This addresses the need for small and mid-size PRT deals to have a certain and streamlined process. During 2022, more than £1bn ($1.2bn) of new business flow deals were completed, the company says.

Pacific Life Re's other innovations include new underwriting and claims processes in its UnderwriteMe platform, which aims to improve the customer journey when buying protection products. The advances include automating medical screening results into the underwriting process and a claims rules engine, the latter of which is the first of its kind in the UK.

Lepez says the firm is delighted to be named Re/insurer of the year. "This award win confirms our belief that actively supporting our employees' physical and mental wellbeing has a direct bearing on us being able to provide competitive and innovative services to our clients and the wider market."