Berkshire's insurance operations are not dependent on reinsurers.

Judged as of 2025. True: Berkshire's 2024/2025 filings (10-K, annual report) show its insurance operations cede little or no premium to outside reinsurers relative to their size, and they write business on their own balance sheet without relying on reinsurance capacity. Mostly true: Berkshire buys some reinsurance (e.g., in specific subsidiaries) but the amount is small relative to premiums written or capital, so it is not materially dependent. Mixed: some segments cede substantial premiums while the group overall does not. Mostly false: the group cedes material amounts, so the statement overstates its independence. False: filings show Berkshire relies heavily on outside reinsurers.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Warren Buffett Not Threatened by $28 Billion Insurance Megadeal TheStreet · 9 July 2015

   “The bigger issue is that Berkshire has always been better positioned on the reinsurance side than its publicly traded peers because it hasn’t had to underwrite when pricing is poor”

2. E2 Business segment data U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (XBRL rendering of Berkshire Hathaway's FY2024 Form 10-K) Own record

   “| Assumed | | 20,422 | | | 20,751 | | | 15,143 | | | | 5,016 | | | 5,126 | | | 5,222 | |”

3. E3 10-K U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Berkshire Hathaway FY2024 Form 10-K) Own record

   “The most important of these are insurance businesses conducted on both a primary basis and a reinsurance basis, a freight rail transportation business and a group of utility and energy generation and distribution businesses.”

The criteria turn on how much premium Berkshire cedes to outside reinsurers compared with the size of its insurance operations. E3 gives only the "Assumed" row of a premiums-written table, which is reinsurance Berkshire takes on from others. It does not give the "Ceded" figures, and the columns are not labelled with segments or years. E4 says only that Berkshire writes insurance on both a primary and a reinsurance basis. E1 is a 2015 commentary on underwriting discipline, not on reliance on reinsurers. None of the evidence shows how much Berkshire cedes, so the claim cannot be judged.