While reviewing our recent White Paper “Captive Insurers - The Risks and Opportunities in a Hardening Covid-19 Market”, I was struck by the dilemma that companies face. Even without the unprecedented challenges to the market in 2020, corporate risk managers may feel that there is little they can do to rescue themselves from coverage risks and rising costs. Does technology offer a new way to handle these problems?
Insurance managers and captive owners will recognise that building strategic partnerships is an essential part of their business, none more so than with chosen technology provider.
2016 was a challenging year for captives with much attention being placed on Solvency II, BEP’s and Employee Benefits (EB). Now 2017 is in full swing, it is clear to see that last year’s three hot topics are going to continue as trends in the market for the foreseeable future.
The concept of having one or multiple global insurance programmes in place has continued to be attractive to multinational corporations. The benefits are well understood and include contract certainty and regulatory compliance and, having agreed coverage terms, conditions then apply on a blanket basis to all of the international operations within the programme.
With another 3 months still to go, 2016 has already been quite an eventful year. The renewal season was kicked off with the pre-Rendezvous AM Best Reinsurance outlook. Some of the issues covered were woven like a red thread throughout the Monte Carlo Rendezvous, the Guernsey ILS roundtable and will certainly be discussed during other events such as the ECF in Luxembourg in November this year.
The OECD BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) strategy 2015 is currently being rolled out globally. With many corporations in a preparation phase, the impact on the captive insurance market is starting to cause concern.
The round table discussion hosted by Business Insurance recently at the RIMS conference in San Diego reflects the current uncertainty around the soft insurance market and if and when that may change.
One of the speakers indicated that “the insurance market had the feeling of the start of a hard market” but added that “this is not what is going on”. Some experts believe there is so much anxious capital in the market now, that not even a major catastrophic event would change the willingness to invest in the insurance market. There is a promise of profit on investments and a reasonable degree of safety for the investment.
It looks like the insurance premium cycle is now looping in the soft market phase and the next premium rate increase is not even to be seen on the horizon.
Three days in Qatar in March, high 20’s and a room full of insurance experts – what could possibly take the edge off that? How about tigers on the loose on the streets and all the Brits in the room bringing inclement weather with them… the locals were not impressed on either front!
Companies wishing to manage their insurance risks have long looked towards captives as a viable alternative to self-insurance. The captive market continues to flourish both domestically and abroad with small captives emerging as valuable players in their own right and growth being seen in new and emerging markets such as Latin America.
