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Hylant Friend of the Podcast

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At Hylant Global Captive Solutions we know every business is unique, so your approach to risk management should be unique. And though finding the right solution isn’t always a clear path, we work as your partner to help navigate the world of alternative risk solutions, helping you better define, finance and manage the risks inherent in your business.

From determining if a captive is the right solution for you all the way to developing an exit strategy, we serve as your partner throughout the captive lifecycle. We promise to provide you the captive support you need to secure the optimal solution for your organization’s risk management needs. Learn more at https://www.hylant.com/globalcaptivesolutions/


KEY CONTACTS

alex gedge

Senior Captive Consultant

alex.gedge@hylant.com

anne marie towle

CEO, Global Risk & Captive Solutions anne.marie.towle@hylant.com

dawn dinardo

Managing Director of Captive Management Operations dawn.dinardo@hylant.com

Ian podmore

Director of Captive Consulting

dawn.dinardo@hylant.com


HYLANT ON THE GLOBAL CAPTIVE PODCAST

Captives provide greater flexibility to MGAs – Shawn Ram

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The captive formed by US-based cyber insurer Coalition has provided it increased flexibility and Shawn Ram, its head of insurance, told Captive Intelligence there were various reasons other managing general agents (MGA) may want to explore a similar strategy.

Coalition describes itself as the “world’s first Active Insurance provider designed to prevent digital risk before it strikes” and uses data-driven technology to provide coverage to more than 60,000 policyholders.

It announced on 14 February an expansion of its cyber insurance offering in the United States to enterprise businesses with revenues of up to $5 billion.

It also offers insurance in the UK and Canada and has relationships with global insurers, including Allianz, Lloyd’s of London, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and Vantage.

Coalition established Palekana Insurance, Inc in Hawaii in December 2021 and Ram said it had been a valuable asset ever since.

“There are multiple reasons why captives provide value for MGAs,” he explained.

“A captive increases flexibility, as most MGAs have some degree of being beholden to carriers in respects to things like coverage limits at risk, appetite, etc. There’s also an element of control that a captive gives you.”

At the launch of Palekana, Coalition said the captive would enhance its ability to manage capacity and its long-term growth objectives while further aligning incentives with its customers.

Ram stressed that the company had not been forced into usiing captive, noting that the company had successfully secured capacity across all its programmes.

“We’re not required to use the captive, and we use the captive at our own discretion, our own risk appetite, and our own desire,” he said.

However, he did explain why a captive would be useful for those MGAs that are struggling to get capacity for certain risks.

“Capacity may be scarce in some of these areas, and so people may look captives to insure against some of these more challenging or innovative type coverages and opportunities,” he said.

Coalition chose to domicile its captive in Hawaii, and Ram highlighted that there’s a variety of issues that the company considered when picking where to domicile the captive.

“We considered things like the financials, tax implications, requirements of the domicile,” he said.

“There are nuances between onshore in the US versus offshore, and compared to an entity in Ireland, Bermuda or Cayman, and at the end of the day, Hawaii was the best fit.”

CloudCover partners Hylant for cybersecurity rent-a-captive

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CloudCover Re has established a rent-a-captive insurance programme named CloudCover CyberCell, in partnership with Hylant Global Captive Solutions.

CloudCover, which is also partnered with broker BMS Group and Munich Re on its cyber risk transfer products, said the insurance programme was needed as premiums have dramatically increased over the past decade due to significant insurance underwriting losses.

Stephen Cardot, CEO of CloudCover sad: “Unlike conventional cyber insurance offerings, the CloudCover CyberCell captive insurance programme operates as a creative answer for any large enterprise or association who is searching for an alternative approach to cyber insurance that provide lower costs while improving the coverage limits… while increasing cyber security protection for participating members.”

The partnership will allow associations, affinity groups and large enterprises to provide risk mitigation value to members in the form of more affordable cyber insurance premiums with more inclusive coverage.

Anne-Marie Towle, global captive solutions leader at Hylant, said: “The CloudCover approach involves renting a captive insurance vehicle from CloudCover Re as an alternative to conventional cyber insurance. This is where the beneficial relationship with CloudCover can begin.”

CloudCover said the improved cyber insurance coverage results from the insured employing CloudCover’s AI-generative, automated microsecond network detection security platform.

Purves Redmond hires Lauren Welch as ART practise leader

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Canadian broker Purves Redmond Limited (PRL) has appointed Lauren Welch as alternative risk transfer practice leader.

PRL is an employee-owned insurance brokerage firm, founded in Toronto in 1959. It has offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Sudbury, and works with Canadian businesses and families.

Welch has more than fifteen years of captive and multinational experience, working both in Canada and Bermuda, most recently as the global fronting & multinational regional leader – Western Canada for AIG.

“I am very excited to be part of the PRL team,” Welch said. “I am looking forward to supporting my fellow colleagues and further building the ART practice throughout Canada, offering our clients new and innovative solutions to their complex risks.”

The company’s services include insurance brokerage, risk management advisory and employee benefits consulting.

Mark Johnstone, national risk management leader, said: “We are thrilled to have Lauren joining PRL as her expertise will reinforce our dedication to providing alternative risk management options to our domestic and multinational clients.

“Lauren will help support and develop Captive Insurance opportunities for our clients and her ability navigating the complexities of fronting insurance to optimize the cost of compliance will certainly add value to our clients.”

Shiwei Jin moves into new global progammes role at AXA XL

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AXA XL has continued its reorganisation of multinational and captive services by appointing Shiwei Jin head of global programmes for APAC & Europe.
 
Based in Hong Kong, Jin will be dedicated to AXA XL’s global programme strategy, value proposition and transformation for its multinational clients in Asia, Australia and Europe.

“Global programmes are at the core of our strategy and a key area of focus for our APAC & Europe Business Unit,” said Adias Gerbaud, chief operating officer for AXA XL in APAC & Europe.
 
“Shiwei is a seasoned insurance professional, specialised in global commercial insurance programs. She has a proven track record in working with international clients to provide bespoke and complex solutions and excellent service.”

Jin’s title was previously global programmes and captives regional director for APAC and the change follows news that Marine Charbonnier is now head of captives and facultative underwriting for APAC & Europe.

Jin and Charbonnier will continue to work closely together with clients in both regions.

Charbonnier, a respected captive practitioner in Continental Europe, was previously global programmes & captives regional director for Europe at AXA XL.

In her new role, Charbonnier will lead AXA XL’s captive business for the APAC & Europe business unit. She will also be responsible for implementing the company’s outwards facultative underwriting strategy for the APAC & Europe business unit, supporting local underwriters.

Captive formation activity in 2023

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Collecting and making sense of captive insurance statistics is not a straightforward task, but this data, if collated, contextualised and communicated properly, provides valuable insight for the industry on trends and, in particular, new business activity.

Captive Intelligence is in direct contact with captive and insurance regulators in more than 60 domiciles around the world as they report their year-end numbers.

Our approach is to contact each regulator directly with questions regarding new captive licences issued during the calendar year, number of surrendered licences, year-end totals, breakdown by type of captives and the latest premium and assets under management (AuM) amounts.

Every domicile defines and counts captives in a slightly different way, while definitions and names of captive types vary too. Some domiciles struggle to provide breakdowns, but it is our aim to work with regulators to best understand and communicate their numbers as accurately as possible.

Some rules and definitions we follow that are important to note when using and understanding the below data:

  • This is a live table that is updated when new data is provided to Captive Intelligence.
  • We only publish data when we have verified numbers provided directly to us from the relevant regulatory body.
  • The core of cell or ‘sponsored’ captive structures (ie. PCC, ICC, SPC, SAC, Series) are included in our captive count, but individual cells and series are not.
  • We do collect individual cell and series data where domiciles provide it, and we will list those numbers, but the industry does not currently have a consistent approach.
  • Group and Association captives are counted together under ‘group’.
  • We have included the latest available Premium and Assets under Management (AuM) data provided by domiciles. In most cases this is from 2021, with 2022 updates expected from April this year.

Captive Intelligence will be adding further tables displaying all the statistics from other regions and domiciles as we receive them in the coming weeks.

UNITED STATES

EUROPE

BERMUDA & CARIBBEAN

ASIA PACIFIC & MIDDLE EAST

Tennessee appoints Mark Wiedeman as new captive director

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The Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (TDCI) has appointed Mark Wiedeman as director of its captive insurance section.

Wiedeman is the State’s third captive director since 2020, succeeding Jonathan Habart who was promoted to the role in November 2021 and Belinda Fortman who took over in June 2020.

Wiedeman  brings captive regulatory experience having previously been assistant director of the captive insurance division in Utah. He left that role in September 2022.



“Mark’s return to the field of insurance regulation is a huge win for TDCI, for all of Tennessee’s captive insurance licensees, and for the State of Tennessee,” said TDCI Commissioner Carter Lawrence.

“His proven leadership and sterling reputation in the captive insurance industry will build on our momentum as a first-choice domicile for captive insurance companies both domestically and internationally. I am thrilled to welcome Mark to the TDCI team, and I am confident he will take Tennessee to the next level of success.”

Tennessee said it has 151 active licensed captive insurance companies and a total of 562 risk-bearing entities with annual gross written premium exceeding $1.72bn.

“Tennessee has a great reputation among captive domiciles, and I am excited to be joining Tennessee’s team where I will work to help them continue in their success,” Wiedeman said.

“My goal is to maintain a regulatory structure that allows for stable and sustainable growth while giving captive companies a domicile in which they can succeed in providing their parent companies with innovative insurance products.”

François-Xavier Dub appointed general manager of Generali Employee Benefits

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Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) has appointed François-Xavier Dub as general manager, where he will report directly to GEB CEO Ludovic Bayard.

Dub has held the role of head of insurance within the partnerships division at Generali France since 2019.

GEB is a leading fronting network for employee benefits programmes reinsured into corporate captives, with presence and local partners in more than 120 countries.



The GEB network operates through 12 Regional offices worldwide coordinated by its headquarters in Luxembourg (Assicurazioni Generali SpA- Luxembourg Branch).

Dub began his career in 2008, within the General Inspectorate of Société Générale, before joining the strategy consulting firm Exton Consulting in 2010, first as a senior consultant and then as a manager.

In 2014 he joined Generali France as director of operations within the partnerships department. He was appointed director of personal insurance solutions in 2016, and then extended his scope of responsibility to P&C Insurance Solutions in 2019.

Renewables sector embracing cell captive solutions

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There has been a rise in the utilisation of protected cells in the renewables market due to the accessibility for smaller players and a challenging market environment.

As with many in the commercial market, the renewables sector has faced pricing and coverage challenges despite a rising appetitie from (re)insurers to underwrite the associated risks.

“There has definitely been an uptick in the use of protected cells, particularly given it’s a much easier entry point for many of the smaller players, as they can get involved and share some of that expense, while still getting the bulk of the benefit,” Michael Kolodner, global renewable energy & US power leader at Marsh, told Captive Intelligence.

“There’s a lot of existing single parent captives at the high end of the maturity scale. There are also a number of group captives that already existed.”

Energy Insurance Services (EIS) owns and manages a sponsored captive in South Carolina which members of Energy Insurance Mutual (EIM) can access.



Megan Ogden, chief operating officer of EIS, said in an upcomoing Global Captive Podcast episode that they were increasingly seeing renewable projects and infrastructure insured by their members using the cell facility.

“We have seen a big upswing in coverage for renewable projects in the last 12 months in EIS,” Ogden said.

“There are several risks factors including construction risks, regulatory risks, technological risks, operational risks and environmental risks that are participants need to address.

“While the commercial market is currently offering a more consistent approach to renewables in both capacity and pricing, a captive or cell is a very valuable alternative risk management and financing tool.”

Kolodner highlighted how captives are particularly useful in the renewables market as there is a high amount of dismemberment and specification within the class.

“If you are an oil and gas major, the marketplace for your risk is different than if you are an independent developer simply looking for insurance for a solar facility,” he said.

“So, the market is segmented and specialised, and renewables can be a hyper specialisation within the broader space, or it can be just another asset.

“And this is where captives actually help bridge this gap quite significantly.”

The most mature players in the renewables market are ultimately using their captives to control the different market access challenges.

Kolodner added: “So, if you run everything into your captive and then you approach the market, on a wholesale basis, you’ve got the ability to go with a more diversified portfolio than if you’re bringing individual projects to the market to the renewables only market in a particular region.”

Captive Intelligence will be publishing a Long Read on captives in the renewables sector on Thursday, 16 February.

Are ERISA benefits back in fashion for captives?


  • “Several” captive applications in to the Department of Labor
  • Applicants undeterred by expected lead time and administration, but cost-effectiveness questioned
  • Uncertainty whether the expedited process (ExPro) may return
  • Further changes to exemption process have been touted by the DoL

After a gap of four and a half years between successful captive exemption applications to the Department of Labor (DoL), the 2022 achievements of Phillips 66 and Comcast is laying the path for further employee benefits activity in the United States.

Bursting the flood gates is too strong a term to describe the increase of interest in a notoriously admin-heavy process, but consultants and (some) clients are bullish about their desire to reinsure employee benefits under the United States’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) into their captive.

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