Don Wurster

Don Wurster is a key manager at National Indemnity Company (NICO), specializing in reinsurance and long-tail liability.

📍 Origin

Mentioned in the 1983 Letter as the manager responsible for two high-potential insurance areas: Structured Settlements and the assumption of Loss Reserves.

📖 Key Responsibility

Structured Settlements: Selling periodic payments (usually monthly for life) to claimants. Buffett highlighted that claimants choose NICO because of its unparalleled financial strength—a critical factor for payments spanning decades.
Loss Reserves Assumption: Acquiring large blocks of expired business from other insurers. NICO's financial condition makes it a preferred transferee for companies wishing to exit specific lines of business.

🔗 Connections

📚 Historical Mentions & Citations (1)

Click a reference document below to expand and read the exact paragraph(s) containing this concept in the archive.

📜

1983 LetterExcerpt Available

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Potentially, structured settlements and the assumption of loss reserves could become very significant to us. Because of their potential size and because these operations generate large amounts of investment income compared to premium volume, we will show underwriting results from those businesses on a separate line in our insurance segment data. We also will exclude their effect in reporting our combined ratio to you. We “front end” no profit on structured settlement or loss reserve transactions, and all attributable overhead is expensed currently. Both businesses are run by Don Wurster at National Indemnity Company.

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