Blog | Risk Management Advisors

Jurisdictional Differences Explained

Written by Risk Management Advisors | Jul 20, 2020 7:54:42 PM

What is a captive insurance company?

A captive insurance company is created solely for writing insurance for property and casualty for a small group of people.A Corporation sets up a pure captive insurance company with one or multiple subsidiaries. It depends on the jurisdiction where the captive is generating revenue, what legislation they need to abide by to become a licensed insurer.The parent company will bear the risk of the subsidiary captive companies. The captive company will understand the difficulties, risks, and premium levels and accept payment from the insured.These captive subsidiary companies will pay the captive company premium payments and become a normal insurance payment for the insured. These captive insurance arrangements are typically deductible and can be claimed for tax exemption.The purpose of a captive insurance structure is to create a company that can finance its ventures and take its risks. They will determine, through a sophisticated risk management advice, how to create their private insurance program management.The regulation concerns guiding private insurance solutions depends on the following things.

Public Versus Private Regulation Concerns

Understanding the difference between these two is crucial. When the insurance of the general public is concerned, the insurer has to keep in mind that they cannot discriminate on the forms and rates, and they have to treat all of the applicants equally. Captive insurance owners do not have to be concerned about these issues.A traditional insurance company has to contribute a certain portion of its revenues into state-mandated funds, which provide payment protection to the insured. This requires that they have to guarantee that they can provide the insured with the claim payment in situations where they have become eligible for it. This is applicable even when this firm has declared bankruptcy, in which case another insurer has to pay for the various taxes and other things that need to fund these.On the other hand, a captive insurance company is not mandated to contribute their earnings in these pools and tax contributions. They do not have to follow a lot of the insurance best practices that traditional insurance companies have to.

How Do Captive Companies Fit In Here?

Captive insurance law dictates that these companies are, by definition, limited in the approaches they can take. They have to be very specific about the needs, and some owners might think that the niche they are interested in will be completely overlooked by the regulations, or they will be over-regulated by the federal government. Either way, there can be a significant impact under regulations on captive insurance companies.
The captive insurance industry is huge, and the advantages of strategic risk management solutions might benefit one owner differently from another one depending on which jurisdiction they are operating under. For example, taxation happens to be one of the best examples of the difference two different captive companies can have. Captive insurance companies need to mitigate risk in commercial activities, but they do not always get the same tax treatment. There is no unanimous approach and no singular voice that can determine the risk factor of these groups. The main reason for that is that generally, captive management partners are the people who are funding the venture. This is why often the owners will create their defense to protect the regulatory needs of their company and area.Some corporations work differently from one another, and enterprise risk management can be captured and handled only through uniquely designed solutions for enterprise risk. Because there is so much diversity in the way captives work, developing a singular plan to address any of these issues can be difficult in case the NAIC or the federal government brings any regulation in this sector. The risk transfer concepts from one company to another will differ, and the owner of a captive might even have to create their unique solution.The NAIC regulations were created to get high ground, and regulatory suggestions can come in place that completely changes how captive companies can operate. Some of these suggestions can even work towards bridging the gap between the traditional insurance companies and the captive insurance companies, which could be disastrous for a captive organization, and the advantage of strategic risk management solutions, in this case, is undeniable.For example, the IRS is also focusing on particular captive insurance arrangements which come under the micro captive transaction umbrella. In these transactions, the owner of the business of the actuarial partners creates their captive to ensure the risk of the business. The result of these features is that a transaction has to be created, which appears as insurance but cannot legally be considered insurance. This will help the captive beneficiaries in tax avoidance and provide a tax reduction to the business while providing a tax-free premium income to the captive organization.