July 2013

CIC Services, LLC recently attended the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) Conference in Palm Springs, California as part of our on-going efforts to stay abreast of shifting trends, strategies and regulations in the captive insurance industry.  The conference was thematically focused on the future of the captive insurance industry.  We attended multiple presentations and workshops covering a wide range of topics, including demographic trends, risk management, medical malpractice, preparing witnesses in a lawsuit, reinsurance, captive investments, regulatory trends, and the creative employment of captive insurance companies.  Stepping back from all of the detailed and educational presentations, three large themes emerged.

CICA Conference Themes

1.   Insurance costs will increase in the very near future.

The term “game changer” has often been used to describe people or entities that break from the established or expected norms.  A “game changer” often defies existing paradigms or creates new paradigms.  In sports, a “game changer” is often an athlete that is far superior to his or her contemporaries, is very versatile or seems to always deliver in high impact situations.

The same can be said of “game changers” in business.  However, in business, “game changing” behavior is often a matter of discovery, unlike sports where “game changing” behavior is almost always the result of raw talent and hard work.  

The number of captive insurance companies continues to grow, because establishing and owning a captive insurance company is one of the most powerful financial vehicles available to businesses and business owners.  By choosing to own their own insurance company, business owners can take better control of business risk mitigation, insure risks that are currently not insured, provide better asset protection to their business, and accumulate wealth in their captive insurance companies.  Once a business owner experiences the many benefits of owning a captive insurance company, it is sometimes difficult to find the cash flow to pay annual casualty insurance premiums to the captive, particularly when economic times are difficult.

It’s no surprise that the captive insurance industry continues to grow and thrive.  As we are preparing to attend the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) conference next week, we have received a wave of invitations from actuaries, domiciles, claims administrators and a myriad of other industry service providers.

Captive insurance companies were first formed in the 1950s.  By 1980, there were approximately 1,000 captive insurance companies.  Today, there are just over 6,000 captive insurance companies and growing.