Captive Insurance

February 16th, 2021-The Bahamas Financial Services Board will once again be sponsoring the 2021 World Captive Forum (WCF) Event. This year BFSB will be a platinum sponsor. Celebrating its 30th year, the 2021 World Captive Forum will be hosted virtually for the first time on February 24th-25th, 2021. A domicile neutral conference, the World Captive Forum provides an in-depth educational, content rich experience for captive managers, investment managers, reinsurers, brokers as well as domicile regulators and officials. Mr. Carl R. Culmer Jr., Manager of Policies and Practices at The Insurance Commission of The Bahamas will be participating as a panelist in the Regulation Update Session on February 25th. He will be joined by other regulators including, David Provost, of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation (Deputy Commissioner), and Travis Wegkamp of the Utah Insurance Department (Director of Captive Insurance). This global panel of regulators will share insights on current events impacting the captive insurance industry in their respective jurisdictions.  The session will be moderated by prominent captive insurance attorney Joe Holahan, Partner, Morris Manning & Martin LLP, who will lead the discussion on topics including: COVID-19 Domicile response – waivers and other actions State bulletins and regulatory requirements Looking ahead – desire to exclude or segregate communicable disease risk, other developments? Independent procurement taxes and regulation Developments in Washington State and other states (CT, MN) Response from domiciles or industry groups? International financial centers – increasing cost of compliance for both regulators and insurers International financial centers – increasing cost of compliance for both regulators and insurers Cannabis Captive Benefits for this year’s attendees at the WCF  include roundtable discussions, educational discussions, a virtual expo hall, on demand sessions as well as group and one on one networking opportunities. The Virtual World Captive Forum event agenda includes premium content designed to address the current and emerging risks facing global companies, showcasing how captives can offer solutions that may not be available in the traditional insurance marketplace. A number of Bahamian insurance professionals have registered to attend this event among them are members of BFSB’s Captives Working Group, Mr. Guilden Gilbert, CEO of CG Captive Managers Ltd. and Mr. Rayon Brown Managing Director and Consulting Actuary of Nassau Captives. Opportunities for Bahamian Captives Captives have been in existence for a long time as a means of controlling risks faced by organizations. Many of the risks on the balance sheet of a company do not align with its core business pursuits, so many companies transfer these risks to a captive via an insurance contract. In 2017, there were over 6,500 captives operating world-wide and over 1,000 global companies successfully using captives (per Deloitte review of the Bermuda Captive Market in January 2019). There is a common misconception that captives are only for and formed by large public companies. However, there is a growing trend for private companies to own Captives. Tanya McCartney, CEO & Executive Director of BFSB stated that: “There remain opportunities for us to capture a niche market in this captive space. Annually BFSB and the Insurance Commission of the Bahamas participate in the various Captive and Risk Management Conferences in the U.S. and Canada. However, service providers continue to state that we should seek to recapture the ground that was lost in this area by: Making a clear policy statement from the government that is going after growth in captive insurance and the allocation of resources to support this growth. A review of current legislation and regulations to ensure that The Bahamas is competitive Taking steps to attract a major broker to the jurisdiction; and Collaborating with the private sector to develop an action plan which focuses on growing captives in niche areas such as technology, FINTECH, property development, wholesaler etc. Through BFSB’s  Captive Working Group industry stakeholders continue to engage with policy makers to ensure that attention is given to the opportunities presented by this particular area of financial services business.