The University of Connecticut School of Law is launching a new Graduate Certificate in Insurance Law for legal and insurance professionals seeking advanced knowledge in one of Connecticut’s most vital sectors. Enrollment is now open for the Spring 2026 semester.
Developed by the Insurance Law Center at UConn Law, the school says the certificate is the only one of its kind. Courses are offered virtually and in-person, including evening classes for working professionals.
The program is open to individuals with a law degree, as well as students with an advanced degree in a related field and with significant legal or insurance experience.
The university promises that students “will gain practical and theoretical insights from nationally recognized faculty and benefit from UConn Law’s deep ties to the insurance industry.”
“The program allows working professionals to get focused training in all kinds of foundational and cutting-edge insurance law topics,” said Travis Pantin, associate professor and director of the Insurance Law Center. “For someone who is looking to boost their knowledge of the field generally, or to dive deep into a particular set of topics relevant to their practice, this will be really useful.”
“Profitability has allowed reinsurers to build up the capacity,” Dhru said, noting that retained earnings from disciplined underwriting and surging investment income have fueled capital growth over the last two years. Since the “historic reinsurance reset” of 2023, featuring higher attachment points on property programs, the reinsurance industry combined ratio has fallen to 90 and lower for three years straight, according to Guy Carpenter’s calculations. Forecasting that the industry combined ratio will remain below 90 through 2027, Dhru asserted that reinsurers “made up for the underperformance of the sector during the five year period of 2017 to 2022 in just two years.”
“Reinsurers now have the ability to absorb an estimated $250 billion in total catastrophe-related insured losses without depleting their capital.”
“However, the long-term relevance of reinsurers is at stake,” he said, going on to note that reinsurers’ share of natural catastrophe losses declined to 12% in 2024 from 20% in 2022—and has remained low, even considering significant loss events like the California wildfires in January of this year.
Reinsurers “have an opportunity to strike a balance between maximizing profitability and maintaining their role as reliable long-term partners,” he said
Offering some insights on the demand side of the reinsurance equation, Rousseau noted that demand for reinsurance is actually increasing—”mostly to cover frequency risks and earnings volatility”—but at a slower pace than capital supply. He cited insurers’ moves to increase retentions as a means to fuel their earnings growth as one particular dampening effect on reinsurance demand.