The Bermuda Insurance Institute awards for 2005 focus on honouring those that have helped Bermuda achieve a strong reputation for regulation, an awards bulletin released yesterday reveals.

Robert Steinhoff, former chairman of the Bermuda Insurance Advisory Committee, has won the BII?s 2005 Lifetime Achievement award.

The IAC was formed to offer assistance to the Bermuda Monetary Authority on insurance regulation matters, including an IAC committee having the task of vetting applications from new reinsurers and insurers that want to join the Bermuda market.

Mr. Steinhoff will be presented the award at a gala ceremony on May 20. And being presented the (Re)Insurance Person of the Year award that night will be the Island?s insurance regulator, Jeremy Cox.

And for the first time a new award is being presented ? the Young (Re)insurance Person of the Year, with Meredith Head, a Partner Re underwriter, winning the distinction.

The winners are chosen from peer nominations submitted to the Bermuda Insurance Institute.

:Robert Steinhoff retired as chair of the Insurance Advisory Committee at the end of last year, after serving for 25 years in various capacities with the IAC. Mr. Steinhoff, who was managing partner of the Bermuda office of accounting giant KPMG until his retirement several years ago, became IAC chairman in 1998.

In the bulletin from the Bermuda Insurance Institute yesterday, Mr. Steinhoff was praised for working tirelessly, quietly and largely unrecognised by many in the insurance industry in ensuring that Bermuda was a domicile of choice for captive and commercial insurers.

?The period over which he served the insurance community on the IAC has been one of unprecedented growth and, from a regulatory point of view, unprecedented challenge,? the statement said.

Mr. Steinhoff, a Bermudian, is currently deputy chairman of the Bermuda Monetary Authority.Supervisor of Insurance at the Bermuda Monetary Authority, is being honoured for his overall contribution to Bermuda?s robust and practical regulatory environment, the BII bulletin said.

?He is a man of few words, demonstrating rather through his strong leadership and genuine concern for his country, the BMA and the future of the insurance/reinsurance market.?

Mr. Cox, a Bermudian, was previously Registrar of Companies and became the Supervisor of Insurance when insurance regulation was put under the BMA in 2002.

Mr. Cox, as Bermuda?s insurance regulator, is actively involved with several initiatives being led by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, including having been part of early efforts to introduce regulation of the reinsurance sector.

Mr. Cox said regulation requires a balanced approach: ?The challenge is to strike the right balance between maintaining an effective regulatory framework while avoiding requirements where the cost burdens imposed on the industry are out of proportion to the resulting public benefits.? the 2005 Young (Re)Insurance Person of the Year, is being honoured for having carved out a successful path in the reinsurance business, while also being a mentor to the junior staff at Partner Re.

?She is a positive, focused, young professional and a Bermudian reinsurance industry role model both in Bermuda and abroad,? the BII bulletin said.

Ms Head, a Bermudian, joined Partner Re in 1997, after completing an MBA in Risk Management at the New York-based College of Insurance.

Currently, Ms Head is responsible for negotiating and underwriting property-catastrophe transactions for US and Canadian clients, as well as for a variety of managerial responsibilities within PartnerRe?s Bermuda-based underwriting team.