General	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
General [Abstract]
General	GENERAL Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, AG, a Swiss holding company (“Allied World Switzerland”), through its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”), is a global provider of a diversified portfolio of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance products with operations in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Europe Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States as well as Lloyd's Syndicate 2232. References to $ are to the lawful currency of the United States and to CHF are to the lawful currency of Switzerland. In January 2015, the Company acquired Latin American Underwriters Holdings Ltd. ("LAU") for $5,105. LAU had previously underwritten trade credit insurance and political risk coverages solely for the Company since 2010. As part of the acquisition, the Company recorded goodwill of $2,467 and customer relationship intangibles of $3,610, which have a five-year amortization period. The Company also recorded $1,000 of contingent consideration related to certain earn-out payments. During the fourth quarter of 2014, the Company reorganized how it manages its business, and as a result it realigned its executive management team and changed its reportable segments to correspond to the reorganization. The Company's Bermuda insurance operations, except for the trade credit line of business, which had previously been included in the international insurance segment, was combined with the U.S. insurance segment, with the new segment renamed the "North American Insurance" segment. The remaining direct insurance operations of the international insurance segment was renamed the "Global Markets Insurance" segment. The Reinsurance segment remained unchanged. The newly created segments are included in Note 12 and prior periods have been recast to conform to the new presentation. On May 1, 2014, the shareholders approved a 3-for-1 stock split of the Company's common shares. All historical share and per share amounts reflect the effect of the stock split.

GENERAL

Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, AG, a Swiss holding company (“Allied World Switzerland”), through its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”), is a global provider of a diversified portfolio of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance products with operations in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Europe Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States as well as Lloyd's Syndicate 2232. References to $ are to the lawful currency of the United States and to CHF are to the lawful currency of Switzerland.

In January 2015, the Company acquired Latin American Underwriters Holdings Ltd. ("LAU") for $5,105. LAU had previously underwritten trade credit insurance and political risk coverages solely for the Company since 2010. As part of the acquisition, the Company recorded goodwill of $2,467 and customer relationship intangibles of $3,610, which have a five-year amortization period. The Company also recorded $1,000 of contingent consideration related to certain earn-out payments.

During the fourth quarter of 2014, the Company reorganized how it manages its business, and as a result it realigned its executive management team and changed its reportable segments to correspond to the reorganization. The Company's Bermuda insurance operations, except for the trade credit line of business, which had previously been included in the international insurance segment, was combined with the U.S. insurance segment, with the new segment renamed the "North American Insurance" segment. The remaining direct insurance operations of the international insurance segment was renamed the "Global Markets Insurance" segment. The Reinsurance segment remained unchanged. The newly created segments are included in Note 12 and prior periods have been recast to conform to the new presentation.

On May 1, 2014, the shareholders approved a 3-for-1 stock split of the Company's common shares. All historical share and per share amounts reflect the effect of the stock split.