Insurance buyers are becoming more confident in their captive utilisation as line of business and retentions increase, particularly amongst the largest insureds.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Global Captive Podcast Julie Patel, Americas captive consulting leader, and Rob Geraghty, international sales and consulting leader at Marsh Captive Solutions, discussed findings from the manager’s 2024 benchmarking analysis.

According to its own data, Marsh formed 92 captives in 2024 with its portfolio now writing $77bn in gross written premium – a 6% rise on 2023.

“I think there has been a shift in the risk management mindset where companies are being more strategic and focusing on long-term benefits of utilising a captive,” Patel said on the podcast.

“A perfect example is property. The property market has stabilised for many industries and traditionally this may have led to companies actually utilising their captives less for this line of coverage.

“But we are seeing that clients are still using their captives in the same manner as they were before. Meaning that they’ll keep the same limits that they were writing prior to the markets stabilising and ultimately, they are looking to leverage their captive’s financial strength during that time and have more control over their insurance programme.”

Geraghty highlighted the increased lines of business written by captives within Marsh’s portfolio of 1,489 licensed insurance entities, as well as increased retentions across various lines.

 ”Growth really came in two areas this year,” he said.

“It was new establishments… but also companies adding new lines of business. So one to two new lines of business on average added to captives.

“Our largest captives taking 8% higher retention in their vehicles. We have got about $120 billion plus of surplus in our captives and a lot of that is being utilised now to retain more lines of business and higher retentions.”

Listen to the full breakdown of Marsh’s 2024 captive business with Julie Patel and Rob Geraghty on the Global Captive Podcast. Listen here or on any podcast platform – just search for ‘Global Captive Podcast’.