Howden Re gains competitive edge and client's trust with Wording Analyzer
By implementing Dylogy's solution and using its own review standards, Howden Re changed how its legal experts and brokers analyze every reinsurance contract.
< 7 min
to review a contract
2 out of 3
clients cite tool as deciding factor
Quality ++
of review output
Challenge: blind spots that were impossible to manage
In reinsurance broking, ruin risk rarely comes from a change in retention alone. More often it originates in contractual uncertainty: a risk that, in practice, isn't covered by the wording, even though it was assumed to be. Covid-19 made this blind spot particularly visible.
Before Wording Analyzer, reviewing a single reinsurance contract could take a legal expert a full day. That pace limited the broker's ability to compare contracts against one another, spot inconsistent clauses, or draw on a portfolio-level view to strengthen negotiations with reinsurers. The blind spot remained, for the most part, an unmanaged risk in the underwriting process rather than something actively controlled.
In reinsurance, ruin risk often comes from uncertainty buried in the wording, a blind spot only discovered when a claim hits, when it's already too late.
Alexandre Veber
Director, Broking & Structured Solutions, Howden Re
Solution: a contract review calibrated to Howden Re's own standards
Howden Re rolled out Wording Analyzer, Dylogy's contract analysis solution. Rather than adopting an off-the-shelf tool, the deployment started with one specific use case and expanded gradually as the legal team built its own review standards into the platform.
Three levels of use are now part of daily practice:
- Legal experts configure and refine the review inside the tool, to make sure it addresses angles specific to reinsurance wording.
- Brokers use the resulting review to identify discussion points to bring to clients.
- Clients engage directly with their brokers on the findings, to prioritize which clauses to revisit and strengthen their contract.
For a long time, contract wording was the most overlooked part of reinsurance broking, with real legal expertise but no technology to multiply what lawyers could do and let them focus on what actually matters. That's exactly what Wording Analyze changes.
Thomas Kroely
Managing Director, Continental Europe
Results: from contract review to competitive advantage
- Immediate time savings
Contract review that once took a full day of legal expertise now takes seven minutes.
- Stronger, more consistent output
Without fatigue or the risk of human error, the analysis stays reliable from one contract to the next.
- A new portfolio-level view.
Wording Analyzer lets Howden Re compare contracts across clients, build market benchmarks, and verify how certain clauses are actually used in the market. That gives the broker tangible evidence to show reinsurers that other market practices exist, and to encourage them to evolve their positions in negotiation.
- Greater client confidence
The tool gives Howden Re's clients added certainty about the quality of their contractual wording. It surfaces contradictions between clauses and reveals gaps or blind spots clients weren't previously aware of.
- A lasting technological edge.
The partnership with Dylogy is built on co-development: Howden Re directly shapes which new features get built, based on its own needs, which helps the broker maintain a technological edge in its market.
With Wording Analyzer, we can show clients contract weaknesses they had no idea existed, and that completely changes the conversation we have with them.
Alexandre Veber
Director, Broking & Structured Solutions
