Assicurazioni Generali, Italy's biggest insurer, said on Tuesday it had completed the sale of its U.S. life reinsurance business to France's Scor for total gross proceeds expected to be $910 million.

E&S firms "have become more highly professional, sophisticated and certainly more diverse than ever before. Insureds and their retail brokers are increasingly looking to the Wholesale community to provide innovative coverage and structure as a way to get to the best possible outcome."

Insurers may consider turning to private and hybrid cloud services to help navigate worrisome weather patterns, a sluggish economic recovery, lower investment returns and customer demands for 24/7 responsiveness.