Aesir has had the pleasure of working with clients from all over the world with all types of risks. With our multinational and multicultural background we enjoy diversity of challenges and are enthusiastic about servicing our clients.

Significant experience with exceptional and complex risks

Aesir excels in navigating complex and non-standard space risks. We specialise in crafting bespoke coverage for new and novel missions and technologies, satellites with unique operational requirements and histories as well as satellites nearing or beyond their design life.

Proven support for pioneering ventures

Aesir has a proven heritage in providing comprehensive coverage for groundbreaking missions including for first flight launch vehicles and other critical first flight hardware. Our approach focuses on finding a solution to the business needs of the insured, enabling their business plans, leading us to consider bespoke structures.

Dedicated focus on Newspace and innovation

Newspace projects are fundamentally different from the larger, established operators’ not only due to the often cutting edge nature of the technology used but also due to the inherent business risks and financing models which underpin the business model. Certainty of cost and certainty of schedule are increasingly valued and also increasingly driving a business where first to market and challenging financing are important considerations.

Aesir actively champions Newspace developments, dedicating significant resources to understanding the evolving technical and commercial risk envelope and providing sustainable coverage as we support a growing space economy.

Strategic Risk Advisory & Early engagement

Insurance should always be seen as an enabler for the business to succeed or exceed its objectives, not as an afterthought or a financial requirement. The focus should be on an intelligently structured risk management programme rather than an insurance purchase and this will benefit any company, large or small.

Aesir therefore advocates an early engagement and offers strategic risk consultancy to help proactively identify and navigate potential challenges; this assistance is available whether Aesir ends up underwriting a specific placement or not.

Internationally recognised, A rated capacity

Aesir works with capacity providers with only the highest financial stability who understand space and are committed to the line of business.

This ensures that understanding of the risk percolates down to all risk carriers, enabling efficient and reliable claims management. Aesir has long standing relationships with capacity providers, working with some of the carriers for well over 10 years.

Strategic partnerships

Aesir works with various carefully selected partners to provide occasional legal or technical support when specific risks require this. This ensures that our knowledge is up to date and relevant for the task at hand and provides increased contract and technical certainty on coverage provided as well as on claims management.

As a Managing General Agent, Aesir is committed to providing the best possible service to the Carriers we act on behalf of. Although we recognise and are proud of our technical approach to underwriting, we never forget that we are insurers offering an insurance product.

Our commitment is therefore not just to provide a sustainable and profitable insurance portfolio but to do so supported by strong compliance, efficient and comprehensive reporting and dependable underwriting.

The Aesir Space Underwriting Tool

Aesir uses the ASUT underwriting tool as the backbone of our underwriting.

However, ASUT is a tool used by underwriters and does not replace the underwriters.

ASUT supports underwriting in a structured, repeatable, auditable and flexible way. ASUT guides the underwriters through the placement process, ensuring data capture and compliance verification, assists with final document preparation and ultimately ensures consistent reporting at all levels.

With this support, underwriters are safe in the knowledge that information they require for analysis is available in a useful format, that they will be prompted in case additional data is required and supporting the collection of that data. This in turn enables the underwriters to focus on the underwriting itself.

Data rich underwriting

ASUT contains records of launches and satellites going back to Sputnik in 1957 together with events related to launches and satellites in-orbit. Furthermore, ASUT captures details of launcher and satellite design.

Data originates from public and proprietary sources as well as client submissions and research and has been quantified to a large degree, making detailed analysis and comparisons possible.

Furthermore, risk data with respect to values, rates, periods, coverage details etc. are also available, enabling trending of coverage and what-if scenarios to be run.

Proprietary pricing models offer risk specific tailoring and adaptive policy structures.

As technology and coverages change, ASUT is adapted to capture relevant data, backfilling as required.

The data rich environment this creates supports all stages of underwriting and claims management.

Specialised knowledge, proven experience

Aesir builds on 40 years of space insurance heritage and a proven track record.

Aesir’s multi-disciplinary team, although currently all dedicated to space underwriting, include a variety of backgrounds bringing additional experience; this includes years in design offices as engineers, in the boardroom of space manufacturers as risk managers, around the table with worldwide clients as insurance brokers and as a space regulator.

However, we never forget that we are first and foremost insurers and although our background helps us to establish a strong portfolio of risks, the focus is on the portfolio and not to try to redesign clients’ risks or outsmart their engineers. The tools we have developed to support us are exactly that – supports – and not replacements for sound portfolio construction.

In addition to the Aesir team, we also work with various carefully selected partners to provide occasional legal or technical support when specific risks require this. This ensures that our knowledge is up to date and relevant for the task at hand and provides increased contract and technical certainty on coverage provided as well as on claims management.

Beyond compliance

Insurance is a regulated activity and Aesir takes its obligations seriously.

As an insurance intermediary based in London, Aesir is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and as a coverholder at Lloyds we our compliance programme also meets the stringent Lloyds requirements.

However, for Aesir, compliance is not merely a set of regulations which must be complied with, it is also good business practice and strengthens the company. A good compliance programme is not a hindrance to normal operations and does not impede efficient work practices but supplements good habits and supports good practices.

Throughout our working practices we have implemented best practices and appropriate tools which support not only a compliant way of working but also a best in class philosophy of doing things right the first time.

Please also see our ‘values’ section which can be found here.

Truly useful reporting

Carriers need the right amount of information at the right time to enable them to perform their own functions with respect to exposure management, cash accounting, claims management, forecasting, etc.

Through the data-rich environment which Aesir operates in, all the relevant data is captured and can be reported on at will.

Specifically, this includes the standard Lloyds v5.2 bordereaux for risk and cash, which are produced on a monthly basis within the first full working week of every month.

However, these reports are not very useful from a space insurance perspective as they do not, for instance, allow carriers to perform their own Lloyds RDS monitoring.

Aesir also believes that Carriers have the right to see not just the business written but also the business seen and assessed, so that carriers can have a better view of the market as a whole. To that end, Aesir provides monthly supplemental reports which include additional information and also an additional level of granularity on the risks which Aesir has seen and is working on. This report also includes all the information required for Carriers to perform their own RDS reporting, as well as expected future cash flow vents and launch exposures.

The format of this last report has changed overtime and therein lies the beauty of the Aesir reporting function: being in complete control of our own data and reporting function, we can easily accommodate specific requirements in any of the reports we issue and make them as useful to the Carrier as possible.

Similarly, any ad-hoc reports can be extracted on request – and if deemed to be useful, made into regular reports.

We pride ourselves on being able to keep our carriers informed and believe this is key for a long-term successful relationship.

Aesir has long standing relationships with all major space broking houses, going back for over 20 years.

The team have worked with brokers not just as underwriters but also as clients and indeed as brokers themselves earlier in their career. This gives Aesir a unique view on the challenges faced by brokers and how to best support them to support their clients and to manage placements in an efficient manner.

Brokers therefore know that they can expect the following from Aesir:

• Low turnaround times on requests
• Support in client meetings, whether as part of a group or in one-to-one meetings
• Transparent underwriting providing clarity and certainty
• Constructive feedback and support at all stages of the placement
• Reliable claims processing