March 2014

Many mature and successful businesses have an immature approach to risk management.  For many business owners and CFOs, risk management is not an enjoyable topic.  Also, taking steps to develop a mature risk management approach sounds like code for “spend more money.”  However, the opposite is the case.  Developing and executing a more mature risk management approach will almost always increase the total wealth of a business and its owners while better managing risks.

The Snap-On tool company’s captive insurance program is a powerful corporate asset and the fruit of both innovative thinking and a passion to drive their business model.  The Snap-On model was built on the success of its franchisees, and Snap-On made insurance a key component of its franchise arrangements.  By doing so, it has been able to help franchisees remain healthy, weather adverse events and losses and do so in a cost effective manner.

Last week, CIC Services  we attended the 2014 Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  CICA touts itself as the only domicile-neutral captive insurance association.  We are members of CICA and attend the conference to stay abreast of legislative and regulatory changes that impact the captive insurance industry.  The CICA conference also addresses new alternative risk concepts, emerging trends and best practices in the industry.

This certainly didn’t come as a surprise, but the opening session of the conference suggested that demand and interest in alternative risk transfer solutions, like captive insurance companies (CICs) and risk retention groups (RRGs) would remain strong in the immediate future.  

There are times when we need to hit the reset button on our way of thinking.  This is often true in the area of wealth management and wealth accumulation.  For example, conventional wisdom often encourages us to only tap our savings as a last resort. 

However, for many professionals and business owners, conventional wisdom may be an impediment to wealth accumulation.  For many, a superior financial strategy is to live off savings and save income.  This approach can grow (not shrink) savings while simultaneously maintaining the same standard of living.