EY Luxembourg’s insurance consulting practice is targeting the captive employee benefits sector and believes it can “complement” existing propositions in the market.
Speaking on a GCP Short released on 29 March, EY partner Emiliano Luzzi and Vittorio Zaniboni, captive and insurance excellence leader, discussed the firm’s decision two years ago to establish an insurance consulting practice in Luxembourg and their focus on employee benefits.
The consulting practice has grown to 13 people with Zaniboni joining in September 2022 having previously been chief insurance officer at General Employee Benefits.
With regards the broader insurance consultant practice that Luzzi oversees, he said he is excited for it to be part of EY’s Global Captive Network.
Luzzi explained they will be focusing on supporting captive owners on underwriting and renewal cycle management, cash flow optimisation, risk appetite and retro protection management.
“It has a long history within EY and is one of the most successful captive service providers amongst the Big Four,” he said.
“With a growing number of captives domiciled in the EU and especially Luxembourg, where we have a lot of companies moving in to establish their captives, our idea is to complement the services offered by our US colleagues by adding additional ones, which can really make a difference in the captive offering space.”
EY has not historically been known for its work on the international employee benefits side of captives, but Zaniboni believes there is a unique role a firm such as EY can play.
“I realised that none of the Big Four were structurally present in providing support to captive from the [employee benefits] consulting side,” Zaniboni said.
“We believe that we can complement the current offer that is out there already. There are a number of entities that are pretty active supporting captives on the EB side, providing knowledge and expertise on the specific benefits that are offered on the different local markets and on the transactional parts of setting up a captive, an EB captive deal.
“While there is not so much support on what I call the insurance side of the equation, meaning running the book, running the captive with EB portfolio insight and being sure that all the governance aspects are properly taken care of.
“It’s true EY hasn’t been very active in this sector so far, but I believe that there are all the necessary elements in the value proposition that we are putting on the market to make it meaningful.”
Listen to the full episode with Emiliano Luzzi and Vittorio Zaniboni here or on any podcast app. Just search for ‘Global Captive Podcast’ and click follow or subscribe.