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Mark Owen takes on Artex Guernsey leadership role
Mark Owen is now managing director of Artex’s Guernsey office, having relocated to the jurisdiction last month after more than eight years in Bermuda.
Owen will lead the Artex Guernsey operation, which manages than 50 insurance and cell entities, and reports into Paul Eaton, CEO of Artex EMEA.
“I am excited by the scale of opportunity that Artex has in Guernsey and look forward to driving the business to continued success, and to build upon the island’s premier status in the captive and alternative risk world map,” Owen told Captive Intelligence.
Prior to relocating to Guernsey, he was senior vice president at Aon in Beruda.
Owen was head of insurance and risk management at Arcadis in London from 2011 to 2015 and prior to that he was a business risk consultant at Marsh.
IRS to finalise micro captive regulations by mid 2025
The Internal Revenue Service has announced plans to release the text of the 2024-2025 priority guidance, which includes plans to finalise its micro captive regulations.
In April 2023, the IRS “obsoleted” its notorious Notice 2016-66 and issued new proposed regulations identifying certain micro-captive transactions as “listed transactions” and certain other micro captive transactions as “transactions of interest”.
Captive Intelligence has reported extensively on sustained push back and criticism from the captive industry, including some state regulators, but the Service had appeared in a prolonged stand-off with previously no indication of a forthcoming conclusion.
Some observers believe the IRS has purposely been drawing out the process to cause doubt in the space, which has led to a number of micro captive closures.
In its latest announcement, the IRS said, once finalised, the regulations will see certain 831(b) captives deemed “listed transactions,” and others labelled “transactions of interest.”
It is not yet clear, however, how these will be defined and whether it will be in line or materially different from the original proposals which due such strong criticism from the industry.
In those previous regulations propsed in 2023, the majority of captives that recorded a loss ratio under 65% would be considered a “listed transaction.”
The 65% loss ratio threshold has been almost universally scorned. It is not uncommon for captives, whether taking the 831(b) tax election or not, and commercial insurers to perform at or better than that level.
Under the new IRS plans, conservation easement transactions and substantially similar transactions will also be considered as listed transactions.
Since the proposals were first put forward by the IRS, they have divided opinion across the industry, with some saying they could destroy the industry, while others have branded them a “refreshing change”.
GCP #113: The Asian Captive Market and ACC 2024
In episode 113 of the Global Captive Podcast, supported by the EY Global Captive Network, Luke shares a report from his recent visit to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, where he attended the Asia Captive Conference 2024.
01:18 – 09:09: Steve Tunstall and Kelvin Wu from the recently launched Captive Insurance Association Singapore (CIAS) discuss the ams of the association and their priorities for captive owners in the domicile.
09:40 – 12:33: Kelvin and Steve, as well as Marsh’s Lawrence Bird and WTW’s Joyce Chau, discuss the prospect of introducing protected cell companies (PCCs) to Singapore and whether they would be well utilised.
12:54 – 17:21: Praveen Trivedi, Executive Director at India’s International Financial Services Centres Authority, discusses captive developments in India.
17:52 – 22.02: A variety of conversations from the Asia Captive Conference 2024, featuring Annie Undikai, Managing Director of Brighton International Management, Marsh’s Lawrence Bird, WTW’s Joyce Chua and Steve Tunstall.
For the latest news, analysis and thought leadership on the global captive market, make sure you are visiting Captive Intelligence and signed up to our twice-weekly newsletter.
China presents “tremendous” opportunity for captive growth
There is enormous growth potential for captives in Asia, and China in-particular, according to Gloria Chan, senior manager of market development at the Hong Kong Insurance Authority.
Captive ownership among Chinese companies has historically fallen short compared regional peers in Asia, and utilisation trails even further behind many well-established captive jurisdictions in the United States and Europe.
Speaking on a panel at the Asia Captive Conference in Kuala Lumpur last month, Chan said that compared to Europe and the US, the idea of captives in Asia is at an “early stage”.
“But we see tremendous potential in this region, particularly China,” she said.
“If we look at the Fortune 500 companies, more than 100 of them are Chinese, but less that a dozen of them have captives.”
Chan said Chinese-owned captives have $86m of premium income on average.
“Once the captive concept is built within a Chinese enterprise, we are seeing them really make use of their captive,” she said.
Chan noted that in order to attract more captives to domicile in Hong Kong, the jurisdiction has relaxed some of its regulations.
“We have now allowed captives to outsource key functions to external service providers such as captive managers, depending on what the captive views appropriate,” she said.
Chan said that the jurisdiction has clarified the requirement that the chief executive of the captive must be based locally.
“We understand that some jurisdictions require the chief executive to be a permanent resident of jurisdiction,” she said.
In Hong Kong there is no requirement for the chief executive to hold permanent residency.
“In short, the chief executive needs to prove that he or she has a residential address in Hong Kong, or a working visa,” she said.
“With flexibility, we hope we can more suitably fit the needs of different sorts or captives.”
Artex continues expansion with Risk International purchase
Artex Risk Solutions has acquired RIBV Holdings, and its subsidiaries, collectively doing business as Risk International. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Ohio-based Risk International provides outsourced risk management and employee benefits advisory services for private equity and corporate clients across the United States.
The Risk International team, led by Todd Miller and Todd Lawrence, will remain in their current location under the direction of Jennifer Gallagher, head of Artex’s North American operations.
“We are delighted to welcome Todd Miller, Todd Lawrence and their team to Artex,” said Peter Mullen, Artex Global CEO.
“Risk International have built a terrific business that has a strong strategic alignment with Artex.”
Mullen said Risk International helps clients find a better way to control the cost of risk across their business, which complements Artex’s ability to build risk financing vehicles for clients.
“Risk International brings us 147 new colleagues spread across six locations in the US, including their headquarters in Fairlawn, Ohio,” he said.
“We welcome the new team and look forward to working together.”
In July, Artex expanded its Malta presence by completing the transition of Bee Insurance Management into its Artex EMEA business.
Artex also recently established a Vermont protected cell company (PCC), Artex Axcell PCC (Vermont), Inc, to provide organisations of all sizes an alternative platform for risk transfer.
Domicile Wars: Is Abu Dhabi emerging as a strong choice in Middle East region?
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Captive Intelligence provides high-value information, industry analysis, exclusive interviews and business intelligence tools to professionals in the captive insurance market.
Aon recruiting new Global Captives Leader, English to chair AGRC
John English will be moving on from his role as CEO of Aon Captive & Insurance Management (ACIM) at the end of the year, with the broker now recruiting for a new Global Captives Leader.
English will be staying with Aon and is expected to take up the position of Chairman of Aon Global Risk Consulting (AGRC), which the captive business reports into.
The broker posted its Global Captives Leader position this week, which can be Europe or United States-based.
“The Global Captive and Insurance Management Leader is responsible for leading the ACIM business and delivering budgeted financial results,” the job posting states.
“The role sits on the Global Risk Consulting leadership team. This group focuses on ensuring that risk consulting is a strategy and differentiator at the centre of Aon’s value proposition to clients, makes a growing contribution to profitable growth and accretive revenue for Aon, and operates as a global, inclusive, diverse, and highly engaged team.”
English took on the role CEO of ACIM role in June 2018, succeeding Peter Mullen who had joined Artex.
English had previously been chief operating officer of ACIM and had spells working in captives for JLT and International Risk Management Group, based in Ireland and Bermuda.
Captive Insurance Association Singapore to focus on education and growth
Following the creation of the Captive Insurance Association Singapore (CIAS) earlier in the year, the association hopes to enhance captive education and growth in the jurisdiction.
The Association was also founded to provide a home for captive owners to share their experiences and collaborate on the development of the market in Singapore.
“We have just founded a captive association for Singapore, and we held our first members’ meeting a few weeks ago,” Steve Tunstall, captive director and general secretary at CIAS, told Captive Intelligence.
Singapore licensed five new captives in 2023, while there were zero dissolutions, taking the total number of captives domiciled in the jurisdiction to 87.
“We have a core group of early founders who are interested in developing and advancing this initiative,” Tunstall said.
“At the moment, our focus is on Singapore-domiciled owners, and we have deliberately limited our scope to around 80 potential members.”
Tunstall said he envisions the association as an educational platform where peers can learn from each other and explore the potential for future growth of captives in Singapore.
The association is a separate entity from the Pan-Asian Risk Management Association (PARIMA).
“Although it has significant influence and support from PARIMA to help us get started,” Tunstall added.
As well as looking at how CIAS can be used to educate those who do not yet have captives, Tunstall hopes the new association can help encourage potential new captive owners in Singapore to consider forming one.
Tunstall said that in the longer term, CIAS hopes to interact more closely with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to discuss the capability of captives in the jurisdiction.
He also said that whether the association decides to expand to allow members from other Asian domiciles “remains to be seen”.
MAXIS GBN and Maven Clinic partner to lunch toolkit for women’s health
MAXIS Global Benefits Network has launched a new educational toolkit in partnership with Maven Clinic, one of the world’s largest virtual clinics for women’s and family health.
The toolkit will allow multinationals to educate staff about the impacts of menopause and how to support those going through midlife health.
“We’re excited to be launching a toolkit in partnership with Maven that can help our clients support their people experiencing the symptoms of menopause and grow workplace inclusivity by guiding colleagues on how to be allies,” said Dr Leena Johns, chief health & wellness officer at MAXIS GBN.
“With staggering statistics around the impacts of menopause on women and their careers, Menopause Awareness Month is the perfect time for our multinational clients to be thinking about how they can best support their people through this time and ensure they aren’t losing their most experienced and knowledgeable talent.”
The toolkit will help employers create an inclusive, menopause-friendly environment, helping them retain their most experienced female employees.
This new service is available to MAXIS GBN’s multinational clients and aims to help them create a menopause-friendly work environment.