Hawaii’s captive profile has “never been stronger”, according to Matt Takamine, captive practice leader at Brown & Brown, citing continued growth in captive premium volume across the domicile and longevity of the captives in the jurisdiction.
Speaking in a GCP Short released on 23 April and recorded at the CICA International Conference in March, Takamine was joined by David Beyer, director of risk management at Alaska Airlines, and Paul Shimomoto, partner at Hawaii law firm Goodsill.
“Hawaii’s captive industry has never been stronger, 255 captives as of the end of last year,” he said.
“I think we’re the largest jurisdiction for Japanese captives worldwide. We have about 40 of them now.”
Takamine said that while Hawaii’s new captive formation number in 2022 was “not stellar” – 13 new captives were licensed last year – the jurisdiction is predicted to have reached $15bn in total captive premium.
“Pretty stunning,” he added. “That’s an average of about $60m a pop for each one of those 255 captives. So, the industry’s doing well.”
The latest assets under management (AuM) figures provided to Captive Intelligence from Hawaii’s Insurance Division showed captives in the domicile now hold assets of more than $30bn.
In the United States, only Vermont has higher annual premium and AuM volume from its captive portfolio.
Alaska Airlines established ASA Assurance in Hawaii in 2016 and Beyer explained that the captive was established to “create some flexibility in our risk management practice”.
“We canvassed the globe in looking for the right domicile and really Hawaii fit top bill for us in every category that we looked at,” Beyer said.
“It’s got a good regulatory structure, good regulatory reputation as well. And then it’s got a solid slate of top-notch vendors that are on island and able to help us do what we need to do. So we’re very happy with what we have with Hawaii.”
Shimomoto said that while every domicile likes to see large numbers of new formations, such statistics “only tell part of the story of a jurisdiction”.
“Premium dollars and activity like that is important, but I think also longevity is a good indication of how long have these captives been around,” he added.
“In Hawaii we have many captives who were formed back in the 1980s that are still here. Thirty-plus years later, still active and growing and doing great new and innovative things.”
Listen to the full GCP Short episode on the Captive Intelligence website here, or on any podcast app. Just search for ‘Global Captive Podcast’.