Captive insurance is an alternative to
self-insurance Self-insurance is a situation in which a person or business that is liable for some risk does not take out any third-party insurance, but rather chooses to bear the risk itself.
In the United States the concept applies especially to self-funded he ...
in which a parent group or groups create a licensed insurance company to provide coverage for itself. The main purpose of doing so is to avoid using traditional commercial insurance companies, which have volatile pricing and may not meet the specific needs of the company. By creating their own
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
company, the parent company can reduce their costs, insure difficult risks, have direct access to
reinsurance markets, and increase cash flow. When a company creates a captive they are indirectly able to evaluate the risks of subsidiaries, write policies, set premiums and ultimately either return unused funds in the form of profits, or invest them for future claim payouts. Captive insurance companies sometimes insure the risks of the group's customers. This is an alternative form of
risk management that is becoming a more practical and popular means through which companies can protect themselves financially while having more control over how they are insured.
There are many variations of how captives can be set up, which can be broken into two categories. The first category is known as non-sponsored in which the company is the creator and beneficiary. Within that category the most common are single-parent or “pure”, group and association. The second category is sponsored in which the captive is owned and controlled by another company that allows other companies to “rent” insurance. This category includes Protected Cell Captive Insurers and Rental Captives.
Origin of term
The term "captive" was coined by the "father of captive insurance", Frederic M. Reiss, while he was bringing his concept into practice for his first client, the
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, in Ohio in the 1950s. The company had a series of mining operations, and its management referred to the mines whose output was put solely to the corporation's use as captive mines. When Reiss helped the company incorporate its own insurance subsidiaries, they were called captive insurance companies because they wrote insurance exclusively for the captive mines. Reiss continued to use the term: the policyholder owns the insurance company i.e. the insurer is captive to the policyholder. If the captive insures its own parent and affiliates, it is called a pure captive. If it insures just one type of industry (e.g. energy industries), it is called a homogeneous captive. A captive insurance company can also insure a group of diverse companies; this is called a heterogeneous captive.
Domicile
Captives are licensed by many
jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
J ...
s. The captive's primary jurisdiction is known as its
domicile
Domicile may refer to:
* Home, a place where someone lives
* Domicile (astrology)
In astrology, a planet's domicile (or less commonly house, not to be confused with the astrological house system) is the zodiac sign over which it has rulership ...
. The captives are then regulated by local insurance authority agencies, which require that captives have enough money to pay claims as well as maintain a minimum surplus. Most captive insurers are based "
offshore", in places such as
Gibraltar
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,
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
,
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
,
Bermuda
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The Cayman Islands,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
Guernsey,
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
,
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
,
The Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
,
Anguilla
Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The terr ...
, the
British Virgin Islands
)
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Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
Financial Centre,
Dubai International Financial Centre
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a special economic zone in Dubai covering , established in 2004 as a financial hub for companies operating throughout the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) markets. DIFC is regulated b ...
and
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...
in the Channel Islands.
Bermuda is the world's leading offshore captive domicile. The onshore regulatory burden and the cost of operating either a US-based or Lloyd's-based captive in the early 1960s drove Reiss to seek out a jurisdiction that would allow his captive concept to flourish. After much investigation, he chose Bermuda, due to its geographical location, clean reputation and status as a
British Dependent Territory
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
, which avoided the risks and uncertainties often experienced by international businesses operating in politically unstable and unaccountable jurisdictions. Bermuda's captives are predominantly owned by large US corporations. The Cayman Islands is the second largest licensing jurisdiction in terms of the number of captives licensed.
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
, in the United States, is second in terms of insurance company assets but third in terms of captives licensed. Healthcare corporations prefer Bermuda, due to the ease of claim payment provided by the regulatory environment.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
is the largest captive reinsurance domicile in the EU.
A recent trend has various states in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
revising their regulations to be more attractive to captive insurance companies. For example,
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
has removed
premium taxes from captives, instead charging a $5,000 annual fee. In the United States, Vermont is home to more captive insurers than any other US state, with nearly 900 licensed captive companies as of August 2009. In past years, Anguilla was a fast growing offshore domicile which ended in 2013. More recently, Anguilla along with other offshore domiciles have seen few new formations and many liquidations and transfers. As with the BVI, ever changing applications of the regulations and the departures of well regarded regulators have ended Anguilla as a domiciles for new formations. Meanwhile,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
,
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, and
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
have been the fastest growing US domiciles. In 2013,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
began allowing captives.
Business lines
Captives can cover lines of business, such as
workers' compensation
Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...
, that have relatively predictable claim rates. They can access the
reinsurance market to lay off (transfer) risks that they do not wish to accept: this may include
product liability
Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. Although the word "product" has b ...
,
general
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
and
professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...
liability and
directors' and officers' liability.
Vehicle insurance
Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injury ...
, both property damage and
third party liability of corporate fleets and vehicles, is also quite commonly covered.
Regulation
Captives may be licensed to write some lines of business directly. In other cases, such as workers' compensation in the US, for example, the business must initially be written by another insurer, under its insurance licence, which then reinsures it (lays it off) to the captive. The original insurer retains a fee, usually somewhere between 5% and 15%, to provide this service.
Premiums paid to captives are tax deductible, provided the terms of the policy (including the premium amount) are reasonable. A captive cannot arbitrarily set the premium amount simply to generate a deduction for the parent. In most situations, the captive carrier should be able to demonstrate its premium generating process (underwriting).
In the European Union, a new set of regulatory requirements (
Solvency II
Solvency II Directive 20092009/138/EC is a Directive in European Union law that codifies and harmonises the EU insurance regulation. Primarily this concerns the amount of capital that EU insurance companies must hold to reduce the risk of insolv ...
) is planned with additional restrictions and responsibilities for captives and reinsurance companies. Some European captives ask for simplified regulation.
Captive manager
Reiss created the first captive management company, International Risk Management Limited (IRML), in Bermuda in 1962 to provide the administration of his client's captives (this is now part of the
Aon Corporation
Aon PLC () is a British-American multinational financial services firm that sells a range of risk-mitigation products, including Commercial Risk, Investment, Wealth and Reinsurance solutions, as well as boutique strategy consulting through Aon ...
).
["Company Overview of Aon International Risk Management Group", July 09, 2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/Research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=1513818] Most captive management is usually outsourced to a captive manager located in the jurisdiction that holds the primary license for the captive.
In the US, most captive managers are small administrative services providers. They don’t draft insurance policies, which is generally the function of a senior insurance or corporate lawyer; they don’t price policies, which is done by a
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
and
casualty insurance Casualty insurance is a defined term which broadly encompasses insurance not directly concerned with life insurance, health insurance, or property insurance.
Casualty insurance is mainly liability coverage of an individual or organization for ne ...
underwriter; and they don’t purport to be responsible for state or federal tax issues, which is what a tax lawyer does. Other captive management firms provide a full turnkey service to include all aspects of forming and managing a captive insurer on an ongoing basis, which would include professionals that understand the insurance, tax, and legal aspects of a captive.
[Insurance Journal, January 24, 2011, http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2011/01/24/181705.htm] The middle market is the area of growth for captive managers because more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies already do captives, according to Capstone Associated Services Ltd., a comprehensive manager of small captive insurers with over 140 captives formed for the middle market in the last 15+ years.
Captive insurance companies are creatures of the
Internal Revenue Code. Over 75% of the world’s captives are associated with the United States because these insurance arrangements are encouraged under the Internal Revenue Code. Because captives are sophisticated tax structures (having been the subject of dozens of cases and rulings by the IRS, the Tax Court and various appellate courts over the past 70 years) captive owners often engage tax professionals in addition to captive managers that simply provide administrative services.
Micro captives
Over 90 percent of Fortune 1000 companies and many successful middle market businesses have captives. Over half of all property and casualty premiums that are written, are written through captives.
The Section 831(b) or "small" P&C captive, also known as a "micro captive" is used by midsize companies looking for cost-effective ways to transfer risk. Captive experts say an 831(b) introduces middle market companies to alternative risk transfer and its benefits, providing this class of insurance buyers a valuable cost-saving tool long utilized by Fortune 1000 companies. The Section 831(b) captive or “small” property and casualty captive is one of the most popular choices for middle market companies.
Sheltering income from taxes
Captive insurance policies can be "designed so that the risks they insure are so unlikely that the captives will never pay out a claim and all those premiums will go back to the business owners or their heirs with little or no tax."
Main captive domiciles
Not listed above by Business Insurance News is Montana with 150 captives as of December 2013 and Anguilla which has more than 300 captives as of December 2012. Delaware does not report.
*2008 Updated stats. Source
Business Insurance News Captives 2008br />
**2008 Updated stats. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20080821225209/http://www.captive.utah.gov/hotnews.html
#2007 Updated stats. Source
LOFSA 2007 Annual Report
See also
*
Catastrophe bond
Catastrophe bonds (also known as cat bonds) are risk-linked securities that transfer a specified set of risks from a sponsor to investors. They were created and first used in the mid-1990s in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge ...
*
Cell captive
*
Reinsurance
*
Reinsurance sidecar Reinsurance sidecars, conventionally referred to as "sidecars", are financial structures that are created to allow investors to take on the risk and return of a group of insurance policies (a "book of business") written by an insurer or reinsurer ( ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Captive Insurance
Offshore finance
Types of insurance