25 Jul Is Captive Insurance a Fit for Your PEO?

Captive insurance programs, which are established to finance the risk of a parent group or groups and sometimes these groups’ customers, can provide advantages in risk management, insurance savings, wealth transfer and taxes. They are a form of alternative risk transfer used by major corporations, nonprofit organizations and medium-sized businesses. Barrow Group has been working with PEOs for over 30 years, and has recently launched a new captive program for PEOs. Barrow Group’s talented team of PEO and Staffing Industry Specialists are ready to help you start protecting your company and its assets from the risks threatening your success.

How Does a Captive Work?

The owners of a group of businesses may decide to retain some of their own risk and form their own insurance company, called a “captive insurer,” instead of purchasing insurance from a third party carrier. This is an attractive option for PEOs that find a limited availability of certain types of insurance coverage in the commercial market or find that those coverages will be a significant expense. In some cases, the captive insurer may decide to insure the group’s customers as well.

Benefits of Captives

Captives can bring many benefits as alternatives to other risk financing plans. Our competitively structured captive program can offer the following advantages:

• Reduced cost of risk
• Cash flow benefits from captive
• Coverage not available from commercial insurers
• Direct access to the international market of reinsurers, which can be more flexible
• Increased bargaining power with commercial insurers (if the captive holds a percentage of insurance)
• Centralize retained losses spread throughout subsidiaries
• Cash flow advantages on income taxes—premiums paid to a captive insurer can be tax-deductible, depending on several factors:
  • The transaction is a bona-fide insurance transaction under a defensible business plan
  • The captive’s owner is organized such that subsidiaries pay premiums to the captive
  • The captive writes a substantial amount of unrelated business, e.g., employee benefit business
  • Ownership is arranged such that insureds are not the same as shareholders.

Is a Captive Right for You?

Captives can be valuable strategic risk management tools, but they are not the best approach for every organization. For some risk profiles, they are not feasible, and could ultimately cost more than traditional insurance. If your PEO is considering captive insurance, you must first clearly establish the financial and business goals and objectives of the company through effective communication between senior management, including CFO, risk manager and business unit heads. Together, consider the follow aspects of your company:

• Background and financial goals
• Actuarial or data issues, including loss data or exposure information needed, insurance company expense loads
• Reinsurance marketplace potential
• Tax and regulatory issues
• Desired captive design

Several parameters can assist you in determining whether a captive is a viable option:

• You must be financially stable and have a good loss history.
• Captive expenses should be below 20 percent of premium, unless there is a compelling reason for a higher ratio.
• You must be able to demonstrate your ability to pay for claims and secure future losses.
• You must be able to dedicate considerable attention to the operation of the captive.

Expert Assistance

The insurance professionals at Barrow Group, LLC are committed to helping you implement the best risk management solutions for your business. Get started now by clicking here for more information.