Scor’s US L&H CEO Bruckner to retire at year-end

French reinsurer Scor has announced that its US life and health (L&H) CEO JC Brueckner has decided to retire at the end of the year, departing after nine years in the role and four decades in the global (re)insurance sector.

Scor said Brueckner has been instrumental in steering the success of its L&H business in the US and in building strong and long-lasting relationships with its cedants in North America.

Brock Robbins, currently Scor’s deputy CEO for L&H US and head of US in-force, will step into the CEO role upon Brueckner’s departure.

Robbins joined Scor in 2011 and has since been responsible for the leadership of various key business and technical areas within the L&H US business.

Brueckner and Robbins will be working together closely over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition, Scor said in a statement.

The move follows a tumultuous period for Scor’s L&H business. The reinsurer issued a profit warning on 16 July stating that actions taken in its L&H book meant it was expecting an insurance service result of -€400mn (-$437mn) for the class in Q2 2024.

It attributed the loss to updates to reserves and continued negative experience variance in its L&H portfolio, partly offset by the positive effect of portfolio actions. The group also guided to a potential negative adjustment of €100mn in the second half of 2024.

Citi downgraded its view on Scor’s shares to neutral following its L&H-driven €308mn Q2 net loss, while AM Best placed the carrier’s A financial strength rating under review with developing implications in response to Scor’s decision to accelerate a review of its L&H reserving assumptions.

Berenberg also downgraded the stock from buy to hold and reduced its price target by more than 8 percent following the profit warning, while KBW downgraded the French reinsurance powerhouse from outperform to market perform.

“I would like to personally thank JC for his years of dedication to Scor and our clients,” said Redmond Murphy, deputy CEO of Scor L&H.

“While he will be missed, I have the utmost confidence that under Brock’s leadership our US teams will continue to uphold the standard of excellence and innovation our clients have come to expect.”