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Healthcare and pension benefits scare the heck out of employers. For good reason, even with the supposed success of consumer-driven healthcare and the demise of defined-benefit pensions.

Bermuda is still considered the leader of the pack when it comes to captives, and the Cayman Islands and smaller domiciles still suffer from the laundering blues. But wherever a captive is, it is sure to benefit from reading about how captive board members might not know what they're doing.

Ar, matey. Pirates on today's high seas might be a match for the buccaneers of lore. And worse still, landlubber terrorists could still have a bloody effect on cargo and aviation rates.

Reinsurers and cedents await the annual fete in Monte Carlo known as the Rendezvous, where ratings downgrades, the fear of greater CAT losses and newfangled securities could affect this year's treaty renewals.

Two timely topics out of the realm of alternative risk: why are so few captives being formed for benefits? And the other--how, and why, risk managers are able to avoid using a fronting carrier for their captive.

The European reinsurance market is divided betwee the soft image of the reinsurers and the harder reality of the cedents. Meanwhile, the fallout of finite risk covers is explored.

The fallout from the Spitzer bomb on the agent and broker community continues to spread, as buyers consider new ways to approach their brokers come renewal time ... and class-action lawsuits are considered as well.

Disability managers--listen up to the strategies that you need to handle an integrated approach to your trade, which can take on everything from catastrophic cases to behavioral health issues.

Earthquakes are enough for any corporation to handle when it comes to protecting their properties, supply chains and businesses in earth-shaking hotspots. But now scientists are alerting risk managers to another potential business-stopping catastrophe--avian flu pandemic.

We've got an exclusive roundtable interview with the key players who were there at the ground floor of the environmental insurance market, as well as analysis on where the market is now.

Hedge funds have started writing reinsurance coverage. Where once reinsurance companies invested in hedge funds, now hedge funds are investing in catastrophe insurance.

Read more on a brother-sister tandem that helps insurance companies get all they can out of their reinsurance treaties. And for insurance buyers, here's illumination on why your carrier's reinsurers should worry you.

How will the rates fare in 2005 in the excess/surplus market, with or without the cataclysmic storms of 2004? What says the famed leader of one of the top E&S carriers out there?