Sunday, July 6, 2025

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Tennessee licences 1,000th risk bearing entity, significant cell re-domestication

The Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (TDCI) has licensed its 1,000th risk-bearing entity since the Captive Insurance Section began licensing captives.

Risk bearing entities includes all types of captives, as well as individual cells. At year-end 2022, Tennessee had 150 active captives plus 411 individual cells.

Captive Intelligence understands a large Bahamas cell company recently re-domiciled to Tennessee, bringing with it a significant number of cells.



In total, Tennessee risk bearing entities are now writing more than $2.4bn.

“This is a defining achievement for Tennessee and shows how the hard work of the domicile and everyone involved has helped to create dramatic growth over the last 12 years,” said Kevin Doherty, president of the Tennessee Captive Insurance Association (TCIA).

“It is also emblematic of the success of the public-private partnership in Tennessee pursuant to which the Department and the captive insurance industry have worked together to create one of the top U.S. domiciles.”

Formed in 1983, Distributors Insurance Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA), is the oldest continuously operating association captive insurance company domiciled in Tennessee.

Douglas Peters, TVPPA President and CEO, highlighted that the captive was created to provide workers’ compensation, general liability, and auto insurance to TVPPA member distribution utilities.

“The parent company and most of our members are located in Tennessee, so it was natural for us to consider Tennessee as the domicile for our captive,” Peters said.

“In addition to our location, Tennessee’s innovative approach to captive insurance regulation caused Distributors Insurance to choose to domicile in Tennessee and, we have found no reason since to question that original decision.”