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Retroactive reinsurance contracts

Retroactive reinsurance policies provide indemnification of losses and loss adjustment expenses of short-duration insurance contracts with respect to underlying loss events that occurred prior to the contract inception date. Claims payments may commence immediately after the contract date or, if applicable, once a contractual retention amount has been reached. Reconciliations of the changes in estimated liabilities for retroactive reinsurance unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses (“claim liabilities”) and related deferred charge reinsurance assumed assets for each of the three years ended December 31, 2017 follows (in millions).


	2017				2016				2015
	Unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses		Deferred charges reinsurance assumed		Unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses		Deferred charges reinsurance assumed		Unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses		Deferred charges reinsurance assumed
Balances – beginning of year	$	24,972	$	(8,047)	$	24,058	$	(7,687)	$	24,702	$	(7,772)

Incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses
Current year contracts		19,005		(7,730)		2,136		(874)		—		—
Prior years’ contracts		(41)		499		(63)		514		546		85

Total		18,964		(7,231)		2,073		(360)		546		85

Paid losses and loss adjustment expenses		(999)		—		(1,159)		—		(1,190)		—

Balances – end of year	$	42,937	$	(15,278)	$	24,972	$	(8,047)	$	24,058	$	(7,687)

Incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses, net of deferred charges	$	11,733			$	1,713			$	631

In the preceding table, classifications of incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses are based on the inception dates of the contracts. We do not believe that analysis of losses incurred and paid by accident year of the underlying event is relevant or meaningful given that our exposure to losses incepts when the contract incepts. Further, we believe the classifications of reported claims and case development liabilities has little or no practical analytical value.

In 2017, we entered into an agreement through a Berkshire subsidiary, National Indemnity Company (“NICO”), with various subsidiaries of American International Group, Inc. (collectively, “AIG”), which became effective on February 2, 2017. Under this agreement, NICO agreed to indemnify AIG for 80% of up to $25 billion of losses and allocated loss adjustment expenses in excess of $25 billion retained by AIG, with respect to certain commercial insurance loss events occurring prior to 2016. As of the effective date, we recorded premiums earned of $10.2 billion, and we also recorded a liability for unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses of $16.4 billion and a deferred charge reinsurance assumed asset of $6.2 billion. Berkshire agreed to guarantee the timely payment of all amounts due to AIG under the agreement.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, we increased our estimated ultimate claim liabilities under the aforementioned AIG contract by approximately $1.8 billion based on higher than expected loss payments reported by AIG under the contractual retention. We also increased the related deferred charge asset by $1.7 billion based on our re-estimation of the amounts and timing of future claim payments. As of yearend 2017, our net liability from this contract was approximately $10.7 billion, representing the excess of the estimated ultimate claim liabilities of approximately $18.2 billion over the remaining deferred charge asset balance of approximately $7.5 billion.

Incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses related to contracts written in prior years were $458 million in 2017, $451 million in 2016 and $631 million in 2015, which included recurring amortization of deferred charges and the effect of changes in the timing and amount of expected future loss payments.

In establishing retroactive reinsurance claim liabilities, we analyze historical aggregate loss payment patterns and project losses into the future under various probability-weighted scenarios. We expect the claim-tail to be very long for many contracts, with some lasting several decades. We monitor claim payment activity and review ceding company reports and other information concerning the underlying losses. We reassess and revise the expected timing and amounts of ultimate losses periodically or when significant events are revealed through our monitoring and review processes.

Our retroactive reinsurance claim liabilities include estimated liabilities for environmental, asbestos and other latent injury exposures of approximately $14.0 billion at December 31, 2017 and $13.7 billion at December 31, 2016. Retroactive reinsurance contracts are generally subject to aggregate policy limits and thus, our exposure to such claims under these contracts is likewise limited. We monitor evolving case law and its effect on environmental and other latent injury claims. Changing government regulations, newly identified toxins, newly reported claims, new theories of liability, new contract interpretations and other factors could result in increases in these liabilities, which could be material to our results of operations. We are unable to reliably estimate the amount of additional net loss or the range of net loss that is reasonably possible.