Guernsey lawyer Kate Storey has chosen to become a full-time non-executive director (NED) for captive insurance and investment fund structures domiciled in Guernsey.
Storey had been a partner at Walkers since 2018, having previously worked at Appleby, but has opted to focus on NED positions. She will also offer services as a legal and regulatory consultant.
Asked why she was keen to pursue more NED opportunities and depart full-time law, Storey told Captive Intelligence: “It’s an opportunity to have a much deeper involvement in businesses than you have as an external legal advisor, and directing strategy rather than merely advising on it is more interesting to me at this stage of my career.”
The Guernsey captive community has launched two educational initiatives concerning insurance management and NEDs this year – an updated course in international insurance management and the Non-Executive Director (NED) Development Programme.
As captives have become more sophisticated, taking on more risk and writing new lines of insurance, the demands and profile of NEDs are only expected to increase.
“Captive governance requirements, as for any other financial services business, are ever increasing, for example in the area of climate change and broader ESG considerations,” added Storey.
“However, Guernsey is outside of Solvency II and therefore has been able to develop its own proportionate, risk based approach to regulation and governance, aligned with IAIS standards.”
Captive Intelligence hosted a podcast discussion in December 2022, which addressed the varied requirements and definitions of NEDs, also known as board directors, between international captive domiciles.
Andrew Bradley, formerly head of group risk services at Nestle and now an outside board member of a captive, said in the podcast that he does not believe the true value of outside board members is currently being realised.
“Outside captive board members aren’t necessarily taken up and included in a board unless it’s required by the local captive domicile,” he said.
“I found a few cases where forward thinking companies have expressly gone out to have not only one, but sometimes two outside board members to challenge what they do and have that extra experience in managing the company.
“So I think this is still very much work in progress and an important part of captive governance, but I think people somehow need to see the value of outside board members because I’m not sure whether that’s coming through just at the moment.”