Oliver Schofield and Malcolm Cutts-Watson have announced their intention to merge their two independent captive consulting businesses – RISCS and Cutts-Watson Consulting.
The new entity, to be named RISCS CWC, will have a global footprint, including physical presence in the UK, Guernsey, France, South Africa and the Cayman Islands, and provide services from captive feasibility and health checks to alternative risk finance consulting and board and governance reviews.
Schofield will be chief executive of the combined organisation, responsible for day-to-day operations and business development, and Cutts-Watson will be non-executive chairman.
The pair announced the planned merger at an event in Guernsey on 19 January, and speaking exclusively on the Global Captive Podcast outlined the overall vision and ambition for RISCS CWC.
Cutts-Watson explained that having launched CWC in 2015, strong growth of the business prompted him last year to begin considering what the “next chapter” would look like.
“Whilst we had a very sustainable business, I was always conscious of the resilience of a relatively small business and also very keen to keep the growth going and there’s a limit to what you can do as a smaller business,” he explained.
“The idea of going back into the corporate world and finding a corporate to buy the business really didn’t appeal. I was looking for someone or something that had a similar sort of culture, a similar view on life and also someone I could enjoy working with.”
Schofield and Cutts-Watson have known each for many years, both having worked in the alternative risk and captive sector since the 1980s, and in recent years had worked together in supporting the development of Labuan as a captive domicile.
Schofield said the approach from CWC was received “very positively”.
“Here at RISCS we have a desire to grow,” he said. “We have a desire to build on the strategic hires that we made France, in South Africa, the Cayman Islands and Jersey during the course of 2022.
“Being able to team up with Malcolm, and his colleagues is a logical step forward.”
Schofield said the fact RISCS CWC will now have double the number of people working under the umbrella, it is a “very exciting proposition” as they serve clients all over the world.
“We will be operating out of six hubs all over the world, but our ambition doesn’t stop there as far as growing,” he added. “We’ll be very much looking to increase the size further, as we get into 2023.”
The independent nature of both businesses will remain an important feature of the combined operation, with Schofield and Cutts-Watson also having no ambition to enter captive management.
“We want to remain independent because we can be much more flexible and nimble when it comes to being able to provide our solutions,” Schofield added.
“From our perspective, this combination enables us to collectively broaden our offer, increase our footprint, strengthen our team, and crucially, it enables us to continue to be domicile, underwriter, and broker agnostic, ensuring that we remain truly independent in our approach, in our thoughts and the delivery of our solutions.”
To hear the full 25 minute conversation between Captive Intelligence editor Richard Cutcher, Oliver Schofield and Malcom Cutts-Watson, listen to the Global Captive Podcast episode here, or on any podcast app.