CAPTIVE INSURANCE IN THE CONSTRUCTION WORLD

Captives are becoming increasingly as insureds begin to assess the risk vs reward of the traditional insurance market. A captive insurer is an insurance company, wholly owned and controlled by its insureds, with the purpose of covering the insureds’ risks WHILE allowing the insureds to benefit from any underwriting profits.

There are a few misconceptions regarding captive insurance programs. Some examples are:

• We are too small for a captive
• We don’t like the idea of going self-insured
• Captives are too difficult to understand
• We don’t have the capital to fund a captive

These are common myths regarding why captives aren’t for you. Let’s debunk them.

We are too small. Surprisingly captive insurance programs can be for insureds paying as low as $150k for casualty insurance.

Self-Insurance is not for us. Captives are not considered “self-insured” programs. Captives, like traditional insurance companies, pull premiums from all their insureds to pay losses and cover overhead. Captives use the philosophy to only insure the best in class contractors – therefore, allowing for savings and underwriting profits to be returned to the insureds.

Captives take too long to put together. It’s possible to perform a feasibility study in a matter of a few days, and then form or enroll a captive within a couple of months.”

Finally, capitalization for captives is much less than most think. It can differ based on size and claims history, but chances are, if you are paying $300k a year for insurance, the capitalization costs will be exceeded by the savings very quickly.

Captives are built for the construction company that has a long term focus on safety and risk management and want to be rewarded for their low loss ratios. Upcoming hardening of the insurance market will continue to increase popularity in captive programs.