Sunday, July 27, 2025

Membership options

Home Blog Page 47

Hub International experiences substantial captive growth

Luke Harrison
-
0
Hub International experiences substantial captive growth

Hub International has seen a significant increase in captive utilisation over the past four years, according to John Yaple, head of captive insurance at the company.

Hub Specialty Captive Group is a full-service captive provider, offering both captive management, as well as captive advisory services to its clients.

The Group offers clients a wide range of onshore and offshore domicile options to consider.

“However, given the increase in captive expertise in the US, along with the increase in competition in the US, I would say we are seeing more and more interest with captives being domiciled onshore,” Yaple told Captive Intelligence.

Yaple said having in-house accounting, financial and underwriting expertise has allowed the company to better align its captive strategy with its overall business objectives.

“We promote ourselves as a one stop shop for things such as accounting and financial reporting, fronting placement and reinsurance to provide a full captive service,” he said.

Yaple added that the increase in captive interest he has witnessed has predominantly been from the middle market and upper middle market space.

“Originally, a lot of it was a result of the challenging insurance market, as well as a result of the pandemic,” he said.

“However, we’ve continued to really see a shift in how business owners and risk managers are managing their risks and looking for creative solutions to help finance their risk.”

Yaple said there has been a particular increase in single parent captives, driven by business owners wanting to have complete control over decision making around programme structures and risk retention levels.

“As well as control over what types of coverages they can include in their captives,” he said.

Yaple said Hub International’s captive practice has had more conversations around property over the last two to three years than any other line of coverage.

“D&O has corrected itself in the marketplace, so while that was a hot topic in 2022, it slowed down in 2023 and going into 2024,” he added.

In contrast, Yaple said cyber interest continues to increase in addition to medical stop loss.

“Medical stop loss is an area that originally wasn’t always sought after in the captive market, but prices continue to increase, and more companies are moving to a self-insured or partly self-insured structure,” he said.

“It fits well to integrate a medical programme with a property and casualty programme to offer a holistic solution.”

He also said the company has seen an uptick in captives being utilised for third party risks for employees, customers and suppliers.

“That’s an area where we’re having many conversations as well,” he said.

EY appoints Charul Sharma to captive services team and tax practice

Luke Harrison
-
0

EY has hired Charul Sharma to its Americas Captive Insurance Services and Financial Services Office (FSO) Tax Practice.

She will be rejoining the EY FSO in California, having previously worked as a senior analyst at the firm, and brings with her eight years of experience in the insurance industry.

In her new role, Sharma will serve both EY’s current and prospective clients, and will concentrate on various aspects of captive insurance services, including feasibility studies, preforming regulatory reviews and captive implementation.

“We are thrilled to have Charul Sharma rejoin EY in the US and hit the ground running as part of the Americas Captive Insurance Services practice within FSO insurance sector,” said Mikhail Raybshteyn, partner at EY.

“Over the years Charul provided invaluable support to the team and our clients, focusing on analytics and project delivery as part of her role in EY Knowledge.

“We are very happy that now she gets to continue her journey with us as an official member of the US team, based in San Jose, CA.”

LMG planning post-election letter to next UK Chancellor on captive regime

Luke Harrison
-
0
LMG planning post-election letter to next UK Chancellor on captive regime

The London Market Group (LMG) is planning to deliver an industry-backed letter to the next Chancellor of the Exchequer urging the continuation of the current government’s commitment to introducing a captive regime following the UK general election on 4 July.

The view is that the general election is likely to delay progress on the introduction of captive legislation in the United Kingdom, despite a promised captive public consultation having already been prepared.

“One of the things I’m considering is putting together a letter to the next Chancellor to join this debate that arrives shortly after they do,” said Caroline Wagstaff, CEO of the LMG, while speaking at the Airmic Conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

Wagstaff is hoping to get industry backing for any potential letter to the new Chancellor, and Captive Intelligence understands there is broad support for the initiative from brokers, captive managers, (re)insurers and risk managers.

“Anybody who fancies signing my letter then come and find me,” she added.

Captive Intelligence has reported extensively over the past 12 months on the prospect of a new regulatory framework for captives in London, with the current Conservative government committing to a consultation this spring.

“We think all the work has been done by Treasury, and all signs are that the consultation was very close to being published,” Wagstaff said.

Although the Conservatives had committed to pressing ahead with a UK captive regime, Captive Intelligence understands it is not Labour’s priority to pursue the agenda should they enter government.

Labour’s shadow treasury team have, however, been briefed on the feasibility and benefits of having a captive insurance regime in place.

“I know captive insurance companies might not be the immediate focus, but I’m really keen to reframe and keep the debate going,” Wagstaff said.

Wagstaff noted that the London insurance market brings in $160bn of GWP a year and totals 33% of the City’s gross domestic product (GWP).

“We need to be able to offer the people who are using the risk transfer services all the tools in the toolkit,” she said.

“We’re not saying it has to be UK and not somewhere else, but we want people to have the choice.”

The prospect of a UK captive regime was discussed in depth by Wagstaff and Aon’s Charles Winter in episode 94 of the Global Captive Podcast, while Chris Lay, CEO of Marsh McLennan UK, co-authored an article in January explaining why the broker was supporting the initiative.

Lay also featured in a GCP episode with Marsh colleagues William Thomas-Ferrand and Matthew Latham debating what would make a successful UK captive domicile.

Member demand prompts new edRISK cells for property and liability lines

Richard Cutcher
-
0
Member demand prompts new edRISK cells for property and liability lines

edRISK, the group captive for educational institutions in the United States, has launched two new cell programmes for property and general liability and educator’s legal liability.

Previously known as edHEALTH, referencing its first product providing medical stop loss to member institutions, it recently restructured to become a sponsored captive so it could add new lines of business which were in demand from its members.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Global Captive Podcast Tracy Hassett, president and CEO of edRISK, said the organisation is keen to “address the concerns that educational institutions have of the unmitigated insurance costs that they are facing as it relates to keeping a college education affordable”.

The new property and liability programmes went live on 1 June, each being run through an individual cell within its sponsored captive structure and Hassett said they launched the programmes because it was what the members were asking for.

“They are evaluating their expenses and their pain points,” she said. “Between general liability, educator’s legal liability and property, that’s really where the schools are seeing their biggest increases and/or gaps in coverage.

“These have historically been risks that are volatile in terms of pricing and in terms of coverage, so they’re looking to reduce some of that volatility, they’re looking to take on a bit more of that risk.

“And we are looking forward to filling the needs that the schools have been asking us to do.”

Prabal Lakhanpal, senior vice president at Spring Consulting Group, has been a long-time consultant to edRISK and explained that the design and launch of the new cells was similar to the formation of any new captive programme.

“You collect comprehensive data going back a few years, undertake a comprehensive feasibility study to understand how the losses have trended and what that programme could look like coming together,” he said on the podcast.

“As you think about a group programme, a few other additional aspects at play are what is the distribution of risk across the members? What is the correlation of risk between Member A and Member B?

“When we started there were multiple members interested in better understanding how Member A’s risk engages with Member B’s risk. All of those are critical aspects of getting underneath and structuring a successful group programme.”

Hassett said edRISK is not limiting itself to the three cell programmes that are now live and members are already inquiring about other lines of insurance the group captive could support them with in the future.

Auto, cyber, student health and pollution are coverages that have already been discussed and she said she did not believe it would be long before additional cells are added.

“There are so many opportunities out there and so many problems for us to create solutions for long term,” Hassett added.

“Now that we have this structure and we have a core group of educational institutions the opportunities are endless.”

AM Best affirms financial strength rating of Apogee captive

Luke Harrison
-
0

AM Best has affirmed the financial strength rating of A- (excellent) and the long-term issuer credit rating of “a-” (excellent) of Vermont-domiciled Prism Assurance. The outlook for the ratings is stable.

Prism is the single parent captive owned by Apogee, one of the largest architectural design and construction companies in the United States.

AM Best assesses Prism’s business profile as limited as the company provides very specific lines of coverage to Apogee, although its risks do have a level of geographical diversification reflecting the scope of the parent’s operations.

AM Best said the company is interwoven into Apogee’s enterprise risk management programme and, as a result, the captive displays excellent risk identification and mitigation processes.

Prism works cohesively with business units across the overall organisation to reduce claims severity and frequency.

The ratings reflect Prism’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

Prism’s balance sheet strength assessment of very strong is supported by risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by Best’s capital adequacy ratio (BCAR).

The company also has strong liquidity measures and affords financial flexibility through the support from its parent.

The adequate operating performance assessment reflects Prism’s five-year average operating ratio that compares suitably with AM Best’s workers’ compensation composite, despite intermittent volatility.

The captive continues to generate consistent annual net profits primarily from a steady flow of royalty and investment income, which adequately offsets any volatility in underwriting and generally allows for healthy profits each year.

AM Best said Prism’s operations also benefit from its inherent low expense structure as a captive, driving an underwriting expense ratio that is a fraction of its peers’ average in comparison.

AM Best affirms ratings of BNY Mellon’s captives

Luke Harrison
-
0

AM Best has affirmed the financial strength rating of A (excellent) and the long-term issuer credit ratings of “a+” (excellent) of Bermuda-domiciled BNY Trade Insurance, and New York-domiciled The Hamilton Insurance Corp. The outlook for the ratings is stable.

BNY Trade and Hamilton are both single parent captives owned by ultimate parent, BNY Mellon, a global financial services company.

Both captives provide comprehensive reinsurance coverage and products to their parent and are both important components of BNY Mellon’s overall risk management framework.

AM Best said both BNY Trade and Hamilton benefit from the parent’s robust policies and procedures in the areas of risk management, corporate governance and compliance.

BNY Trade’s rating reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The ratings of Hamilton reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM.

BNY Trade’s balance sheet strength assessment of strongest is supported by its risk-adjusted capitalisation being at the strongest level, as measured by Best’s capital adequacy ratio (BCAR).

Hamilton’s very strong balance sheet strength assessment is supported by risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by BCAR, strong liquidity measures exceeding industry composite averages, and benefits from the financial flexibility and support from its parent.

The operating performance of strong for both BNY Trade and Hamilton reflects favourable combined ratios, driven by excellent loss history and low expense structure.

GCP Short: edRISK launches property, liability programmes

Richard Cutcher
-
0
GCP Short: edRISK launches property, liability programmes
Tracy Hassett, edRISK
Prabal Lakhanpal, Spring Consulting Group

In this GCP Short, produced in partnership with ⁠Spring Consulting Group⁠, Richard welcomes Tracy Hassett, president and CEO of edRISK, back onto the podcast.

⁠edRISK⁠ is a sponsored captive owner in Vermont which serves its educational institution members on a growing range of business insurance lines.

Originally formed as a group captive to support its members in reducing health insurance costs, on 1 June it went live with two new programmes for property and general liability and educators legal liability.

We are also joined by Prabal Lakhanpal, senior vice president at Spring Consulting Group, who are long term partners of edRISK and have worked closely on the restructuring and launch of these new progammes.

Tracy and Prabal talk about the evolution into a sponsored captive structure, why and how that was done, and explain why edRISK has branched out from just offering medical stop loss.

Tracy originally featured on the Global Captive Podcast in September 2020 on ⁠GCP #38⁠.

For the latest news, analysis and thought leadership on the global captive insurance market visit ⁠Captive Intelligence⁠ and sign up to our ⁠twice-weekly newsletter⁠.

Apollo launches first Captive Syndicate at Lloyd’s

Richard Cutcher
-
0
Apollo launches first Captive Syndicate at Lloyd’s

Captive Syndicate 1100 has been launched at Lloyd’s of London, to be managed by Apollo Syndicate Management Ltd, and is the first Captive Syndicate in the market since the turn of the century.

Captive Intelligence has reported previously on the Lloyd’s captive project and we understand several large multinationals have had preparatory talks of establishing a syndicate within the historic insurance market.

Despite press reports at the start of the year that the first formation was imminent Lloyd’s CEO John Neal told Captive Intelligence during a press conference in March that they were “not in a hurry” to issue the first licence.

Apollo has now confirmed that it has formed the Captive Syndicate in partnership with a “major global client”.

“Establishing the first captive syndicate is a great achievement for our client, Apollo, and our industry,” said David Ibeson, group CEO of Apollo.

“We are extremely proud of this milestone and the way in which it reinforces Apollo’s reputation for the delivery of market-leading innovation at Lloyd’s.”

The client in question has not been named, but Captive Intelligence understands it is a major multinational technology company which already own captives in other jurisdictions.

Captive Intelligence also understands that Marsh has been working closely with Apollo and the client on the new vehicle and captive strategy.

Dawn Miller, commercial director at Lloyd’s, said: “We are delighted to welcome Captive Syndicate 1100, which is the first syndicate to be launched under Lloyd’s revised Captive syndicate model.

“As part of our ongoing work to provide specialist risk solutions for our customers, we have sought to align our captive structure with the needs of third parties seeking access to operational benefits through Lloyd’s global insurance expertise, licence network and financial strength ratings.

“We look forward to welcoming further businesses to our captive platform in the near future.”

Captive backed tenant programme delivering market leading product for Extra Space

Richard Cutcher
-
0
Captive backed tenant programme delivering market leading product for Extra Space

Implementing a tenant programme that is run by the group’s captive, rather than provided by the commercial market, has been key in providing Extra Space more control over their own product and serve customers better.

Extra Space Storage is a publicly listed real estate investment trust that has 3,700 storage properties across 42 states. This amounts to 2.5 million storage units and 283 million rentable square feet.

Speaking on the Global Captive Podcast Kacey Kalian, VP of risk management at Extra Space, said the company previously used a third party product to provide tenant insurance to its customers with Extra Space taking a “small cut” of the premium.

In the mid-2000s the company was growing quickly and wanted to take more control over the insurance it offered to its customers.

“We wanted to control the process and make sure we were creating something that was really unique and beneficial for our tenants,” Kalian said.

Jason Flaxbeard, executive managing director for alternative risk at Brown & Brown, has been a long-time consultant to Extra Space on its captive and said while control is the ultimate objective, ensuring your compliant in offering a customer product is key.

“You’re selling a product to an individual member of the public, so we have to be compliant from a licensing perspective,” Flaxbeard said on the podcast.

“We have to offer an A-rated product and we have to ensure that Extra Space’s interests are aligned with the customer’s interest on the backend. The captive allows us to do that because we are the ultimate risk taker on any one of those programmes or for any individual.”

Today Extra Space uses a fronting partner and reinsures 100% of the tenant risk.

“It’s in our own best interest to make sure that we invest in good loss control practices, that our tenants’ goods are always safe and protected because ultimately we are paying out 100% of those claims,” Kalian added.

“It hits our bottom line. If we have a big hurricane or if we have a big fire, that’s money that’s coming directly out of our pockets via the captive.”

Bobby Mayer, vice president at Brown & Brown, specialises in tenant insurance programmes and works closely with Extra Space on their structure.

“With traditional insurance you’re really just worried about one person, but with this type of product there’s two groups you have to consider – the landlord and the tenant,” Mayer said.

“What we try and do and what I think the trick is to these programmees is design something where everyone wins.

“It’s easy to use for the tenant, it’s good for Extra Space because it encourages good behaviours and generates a revenue for them. And the captive becomes that tool that allows you to control that and really deliver on it.”

Kalian said they have been able to expand and tailor the coverage as the environment changes or different challenges emerge.

For example, Extra Space has been able to add flood and pest coverage to its list of perils and Kalian believes today they “probably have the most comprehensive insurance programme of any self-storage company”.

“It has no deductible and it’s just relatively cheap in terms of costs so the majority of our tenants do decide to take that product,” he added.

“If you think about filing a claim with your homeowner’s insurance company, any time you do that your rates are going to go up and there’s usually a large deductible associated with it.

“We’ve created something that is unique and also affordable and very easy to use. It’s very easy to file a claim. And from a customer service perspective, it just provides a great product for in the unfortunate circumstance that someone might have an issue at one of our properties.”

Listen to the full 23-minute Global Captive Podcast discussion about Extra Space’s captive insurance strategy here on Captive Intelligence or any podcast app. Just search for ‘Global Captive Podcast’.

Non-profits and charities look to captives to negate rising costs

Luke Harrison
-
0
Non-profits and charities look to captives to negate rising costs
  • Tough commercial market for not-for-profits and public entities
  • Captive frequently used to fill growing gaps in coverage and raise capacity
  • Emerging risks and liability insurance a particular challenge
  • Internal and stakeholder buy-in can be slower than in the private market

Public entities, non-for-profits, and charities have long been common utilisers of captive insurance structures, but they are increasingly looking towards captives as a means of addressing emerging risks, stifling rising costs and mitigating a lack of capacity in the commercial market.

A common challenge faced by a number of these organisations when utilising captives is the capital requirements needed to fund the formations.

Subscribe to Ci Premium to continue reading
Captive Intelligence provides high-value information, industry analysis, exclusive interviews and business intelligence tools to professionals in the captive insurance market.
1...464748...133Page 47 of 133

© 2025 Global Captive Media Ltd.