AM Best


AM BestTV at VCIA: As Insurance Market Hardens, Captive Sector Poised for Growth


CONTACTS:

Christopher Sharkey
Manager, Public Relations
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159
christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Jim Peavy
Director, Public Relations
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644
james.peavy@ambest.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OLDWICK - AUGUST 12, 2019 09:39 AM (EDT)
In this AM BestTV episode from the Vermont Captive Insurance Conference (VCIA) in Burlington, VT, attendees said rising insurance prices for property, trucking and other lines are spurring organizations to explore ways to cover their own risk or better manage deductibles. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=vcia1819 to view the entire program.

In the episode, insurance industry executives discussed how changing market conditions could fuel new captive business.

“With the hardening of the market, expectations are that captives will expand their programs and look at other areas that they can help policyholders. The second expectation is that new formations may actually increase compared with previous years,” said Fred Eslami, associate director, AM Best.

“I see a real hardening of the market, especially around property risk,” said Ellen Charnley, president, Marsh Captive Solutions. “Not a week goes by where we do not get a call from a broker, a client or perspective captive owner looking to potentially use a captive to help them take on a bigger deductible, perhaps reinsure a layer or take out a quota share, which would really help them to control their property costs.”

Tony Weller, chief executive officer, Citadel Risk, highlighted the commercial automobile industry, especially trucking.

“Here in the United States, the real hardening in the market is in commercial auto,” said Weller. “A large fleet that has a renewal, but has not had many accidents and their loss runs are good, yet still has their premiums doubling per unit, will look to captives for options..”

Other people that appear in this episode:


  • Jason Palmer, regional managing director, global captive practice., Willis Towers Watson;

  • Ed Malaspina, president and chief executive officer, HAI Group;

  • Rich Smith, president, Vermont Captive Insurance Association; and

  • Dave Provost, deputy commissioner of the Captive Insurance Division of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation.

AM BestTV is covering the VCIA’s annual conference. Exclusive interviews from the event are available at http://www.ambest.tv/vcia19 .

Other VCIA-related coverage includes:


  • Regulators Say Overseeing Captives Requires a Different Perspective: Captive regulators Dave Provost of Vermont and Debbie Walker of North Carolina said regulators take a closer look at captives’ business issues because captive sponsors are typically sophisticated organizations that voluntarily commit their capital: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=regulators819.

  • Rated Captives Build Surplus, Outperform Commercial Sector, Says AM Best Associate Director: Fred Eslami, associate director, AM Best, examines a new report that finds captive insurance organizations rated by AM Best have been growing surplus, returning dividends and reporting better combined ratios than the overall commercial insurance sector: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=captivereport819.

AM BestTV covers exclusive AM Best and insurance industry information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the insurance, reinsurance and related sectors daily. Sign up for alerts of episodes at http://www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html . View AM BestTV episodes at http://www.ambest.tv .

AM Best is a global rating agency and information provider with a unique focus on the insurance industry.