A Bermuda Class E reinsurer holds capital against an annuity block once, at the enhanced capital requirement its scenario-based model produces, and a US cedent's regulator sees that capital only through the reserve credit the treaty releases. Chariot Re now has more than $2 billion of it, in equity and debt, behind approximately $20 billion of liabilities across three treaties (Chariot Re and General Atlantic, September 2026).

The third round closed September 2 at about $700 million, oversubscribed, with Chubb as lead investor. The ratio has held near ten cents of capital per dollar of liabilities since launch. The Bermuda Monetary Authority's eligible capital tiers decide how much of those ten cents count, and the NAIC's draft AG 55 guidance asks the cedent what its RBC ratio would be without them.

Key Takeaways

  • $700 million in equity and debt closed September 2, taking capital raised since July 2025 past $2 billion against about $20 billion of liabilities, the ten-cent ratio the launch set.
  • $11.1 billion of funds withheld sat on MetLife's balance sheet against Chariot Re at June 30, 2026, up from $10.5 billion at year-end (MetLife 10-Q, August 2026).
  • Approximately 15% of Chariot Re's equity went to each sponsor at launch, above the 10% holding at which NAIC Model 440 presumes control, the test that decides whether the AG 55 draft treats MetLife's cessions as affiliated.
  • 50% of a Class E insurer's enhanced capital requirement must be tier 1 under the BMA's Eligible Capital Rules; subordinated debt counts only as tier 2, capped at the tier 1 amount, so the raise's debt share sets how much of it absorbs loss.

Three Raises, Three Treaties, One Ratio

The December 2024 formation release set the terms: an initial combined equity investment expected to exceed $1 billion, MetLife and General Atlantic each taking approximately 15%, Chubb anchoring the rest, and MetLife ceding about $10 billion of statutory reserves in structured settlement annuities and pension risk transfer group annuities (General Atlantic, December 2024). The launch closed on July 2, 2025 on those numbers.

The second treaty, announced January 7, 2026, took a block of whole life liabilities from Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, a MetLife affiliate, with no size disclosed and cumulative equity still described as more than $1 billion (Reinsurance News, January 2026). The September release adds a third treaty, again unsized, and a second raise that never had its own announcement. Together they leave more than $2 billion of capital behind approximately $20 billion of liabilities.

Date Event Cumulative capital Cumulative liabilities Capital per $1
Dec 2024Formation announced>$1B expected~$10B targeted~10c
Jul 2025Launch; first treaty>$1B equity~$10B~10c
Jan 2026Second treaty (whole life)>$1B equityundisclosedn/d
Sep 2026Third raise; third treaty>$2B equity and debt~$20B~10c

MetLife's own filings give the only audited view. The company invested $216 million in Chariot Holding Company, LP in the third quarter of 2025 and $20 million more in the fourth, and carried $94 million of unfunded contingent commitments at year-end, $67 million by June 30 (MetLife 10-K, February 2026; 10-Q, August 2026). Against Chariot Re it recorded a funds withheld liability of $11.1 billion and reinsurance receivables of $10.9 billion at June 30, 2026, up from $10.5 billion and $9.8 billion at December 31.

The $20 billion is a reinsurer-side count across three treaties; the 10-Q was filed August 6, before the third treaty was disclosed. Both rest on a cedent that keeps the assets, pays a return on them, and books a receivable the size of the liability it owes back.

How Bermuda Counts the $2 Billion and How AG 55 Recounts It

A Class E insurer holds available statutory capital and surplus at or above its enhanced capital requirement, the Bermuda Solvency Capital Requirement for a long-term insurer. The Insurance (Eligible Capital) Rules 2012 set the mix: tier 1 capital of at least 50% of the ECR, tier 2 of no more than the tier 1 amount, and tier 3 of no more than 17.65% of the two combined (BMA, paragraph 3(5)). Paid-up common equity is tier 1. Subordinated debt of five years or more is tier 2; debt reaches tier 1 only if it is undated or ten-year, loss-absorbing, and approved by the Authority.

Chariot Re describes every round as equity and debt without splitting them. Each dollar of tier 2 debt in the $700 million covers ECR only up to the tier 1 equity beside it, so the ten-cent ratio on the release is an upper bound on loss-absorbing capital, and the equity share of the raise is the figure the BMA's ratio moves on.

The Authority's 2024 amendments replaced the factor-based other-insurance-risk charge with explicit lapse and expense charges, phased in linearly over ten years from 2024 (Walkers, March 2024), and added a lapse, liquidity and scenario-based approach return (BMA, March 2025). Structured settlements and PRT annuities carry almost no lapse. The whole life block from the second treaty does, and it entered the BSCR in the third year of that phase-in.

The NAIC's draft AG 55 Guidance Document for year-end 2026 asks the ceding company for its RBC ratio "calculated with the block of business on a pre-reinsurance basis" beside each treaty's reserve credit (NAIC LATF, September 2026; the site's coverage of the draft). Section V.b asks the reasons behind a transaction only when the assuming company is affiliated. Model 440 presumes control at 10% or more of voting securities, and MetLife's approximately 15% through Chariot Holding Company sits above that line. Fitch counts 72% of $1.3 trillion of offshore reserves as affiliated (Reinsurance News, September 2026).

For the MetLife cedents the two rulebooks meet in the funds withheld account. The $11.1 billion stays with the cedent as collateral, Chariot Re books the reserve and holds BSCR against it, and line (9) of the draft's Counterparty tab asks how much of the reinsurer's starting assets is excess capital beyond moderately adverse conditions. Chariot Re's $2 billion is the ceiling on that answer before its own ECR consumes most of it.

Peer vehicles run the same shape: West Grove Re's $1 billion for Talcott and Windsor Life Re's roughly $900 million for Sun Life and Wilton Re (Artemis, September 2026), inside a Bermuda sidecar market Morningstar DBRS puts at $375 billion of assumed liabilities, growing about 32% a year since 2021 (Royal Gazette, September 2026).

Chubb Leads the Round While Its Own Property Book Shrinks

Chubb anchored the launch round with a board seat and led the third while shrinking its own cat book. Evan Greenberg told analysts in October 2025, "We're not going to chase property cat, unless we think it's priced adequately" (Reinsurance News, October 2025). By mid-2026 the company had non-renewed shared-and-layered property with pricing down 12% (site coverage, July 2026). Munich Re's July renewals came in at a risk-adjusted -5.5% on 9.1% less volume (Munich Re, August 2026); Hannover Re's at -4.5%.

P&C surplus that cannot find adequately priced cat risk found a life sidecar's third round, and what that round buys is an asset spread. A Class E reinsurer earns the gap between its portfolio yield and the rate the block credits or discounts at. MetLife Investment Management and General Atlantic run that portfolio under exclusive management agreements, hold about 30% of the equity, and originate the liabilities. Chubb and the other third-party holders own the remaining 70% and none of the fee stream, of which MetLife's share ran $6 million in the first quarter of 2026 (MetLife 10-Q, May 2026).

The sponsor sits on three sides of the treaty: it cedes the block, manages the assets behind it, and owns a share of the reinsurer. Year-end 2026 AG 55 filings will put the pre-reinsurance RBC ratio for each of those treaties beside the reserve credit taken, against $2 billion of mixed equity and debt whose tier 1 share the release never states. A cedent recomputing its RBC as if $11.1 billion of funds withheld had never left will be defending relief backed by a reinsurer it partly owns, whose ECR depends on assets it manages, for a lead investor there for the yield those managers produce.

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