Latest Posts
USA Risk Group (Cayman), Ltd. Moves Offices
View from the new office
USA Risk Group, Inc. is pleased to announce the move of our Cayman Islands office to 5th Floor, Queensgate House, 113 South Church Street, Georgetown. As some may know, USA Risk Group (Cayman), Ltd. has been in existence since the summer of 2005. Since that time, our offices have been on the first floor of the Grand Pavilion, a building with much history, including a stay from the Queen of England when she visited the island. The building was a hotel and home to the offices of Fred Reiss, the grandfather of the alternative risk transfer marketplace.
During the fall of 2004, Hurricane Ivan devastated the island with the most damage created by a single storm in years. At the time, JLT Captive Management resided on the first floor of the Grand Pavilion and returned to their office space to 30 inches of water and many destroyed documents. Not too hard to believe with an island that’s 12 feet above sea level and a storm the magnitude of Ivan. After purchasing the JLT book of business and acquiring the staff who are all too familiar with the Ivan devastation, USA Risk Group has attempted to move to higher ground. Our new location is on the fifth floor and is just another step in our strategic disaster recovery plan.
And with our new elevation comes a stunning view of downtown and Seven Mile Beach.
Captive Insurance Education
Please see a recent post on the Captive Review blog regarding the important of captive insurance education:
http://www.captivereview.com/blogs/573392/-the-importance-of-education-.thtml
Regulators: What’s going on?
Was it something I said? I just got done announcing the departure of Paulette Thabault as Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Vermont and now I have two more announcements.
JP Schmidt, Insurance Commissioner of the State of Hawaii and Peter Raymond, Director of Captive Operations for the State of Vermont, have both tendered their resignations to move into the private sector. Mr. Schmidt held the top post in Hawaii for seven years and indicated that he is glad to be continuing his work in the insurance industry, albeit, from the private legal sector. Mr. Raymond has put in over twenty years as a regulator in Vermont. He will be moving on as a contract auditor performing work for the Florida Hurricane Fund.
We wish them well in their new endeavors and are glad to see that they won’t be in roles that could create a conflict with some of the captives they once regulated.
5th Annual Executive Educational Conference A Huge Success
The 5th Annual Executive Educational Conference hosted by USA Risk Group was a huge success last week. We had over 100 attendees converge on the Ballantyne Resort & Lodge in Charlotte, NC for some golf, some spa treatments and a day and a half of very high powered seminars. Some of the first time attendees commented to me regarding the high caliber of the seminar speakers.
We had a CEO from a major insurance carrier, a President of another major insurance carrier, the defense attorney for the Humana case, which is the backbone of many captive arrangements affectionately referred to as the Humana Model and many other experts in their field; too many to mention here.
Surveys for the conference were just sent out, however, the verbal responses we received during the sessions and directly afterwards were overwhelming. Just from the these comments, I would say this was the most successful conference we have ever hosted. One individual, who has been in the business over twenty years told me that the sessions were outstanding, better than any sessions he has sat through at other captive conferences, and that he definitely learned a lot.
For those who have not attended one of our conferences, we put a unique spin on our sessions as compared to other conferences. We bring in the top experts in their particular field and facilitate audience participation and interaction. Our speakers are encouraged to dig into actual issues our attendees are dealing with and bring real solutions to the discussion. They are not tied down to a canned speech. All of the sessions had interplay between the speakers and the audience, however, the tax session always brings that concept to a new level. The attendees brought up topics that affect their captives and our speakers specifically addressed those topics. We have already discussed the tax session for next year and are contemplating an open ended session. We always seem to run out of time even after extending it this year to two hours.
We have received many phone calls and emails from this year’s speakers and attendees asking to be involved for next year’s conference. What an overwhelming response we have received!
USA Risk Group Expands into the European Union
USA Risk Group’s latest venture has taken us to Malta where we have joined forces with Jatco Insurance Brokers Limited, owned by John Tortell, to form USA Risk Group (Malta) Limited. Senior management were presented an opportunity to expand into the EU at the end of 2009 and in short order have completed that expansion in what it considered the most dynamic of the EU domiciles, Malta.
When Malta joined the EU in May 2004, it had already taken steps to implement a regulatory framework that operated to EU standards and could accommodate pure captive insurance companies. Pure captives are classified as Affiliated Insurance Companies and are afforded some important exemptions from some of the provisions of the Insurance Business Act which regulates all Maltese insurers.
Among some of the benefits of forming a Maltese captive are, the ability to write policies directly into the EU and European Economic Area, effective and responsive regulation, an established financial center and tax efficiencies just to name a few. With potential tax refunds from the Maltese government, the effective income tax rate for a Maltese captive can be as low as 5%.
USA Risk Group looks forward to the many opportunities this expansion will create for us and for our clients. We welcome John as a strong addition to senior management and look forward to many years of success as we expand into the EU.
Authors
Jeff, a Certified Public Accountant since 1990, has over 19 years experience in the captive insurance industry. Jeff has had experience working for a large broker, a self-managed captive insurance company and for the past 10 years has focused the majority of his time in the creation and formation of captive arrangements ranging from single parents to sponsored facilities to risk retention groups. He is an active participant with the Vermont Captive Insurance Association and other industry associations and has also spoken at several industry conferences. He has been a member of the VCIA’s legislative committee for the past 10 years. He is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a degree in Business Administration.
Gary, a Scottish Chartered Accountant, presides over the entire USA Risk Group family. He develops innovative alternative and traditional risk strategies and programs for clients and prospects of USA Risk Group. With over nineteen years of experience in the alternative market, he has been involved in the establishment of numerous single parent captives, association captives, risk retention groups, and traditional group insurance programs. He has also spoken at several national industry conferences, served on the NRRA membership committee, and was Treasurer of the Hawaii Captive Insurance Council. He currently serves on the Legislative Committee of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association and serves as a faculty member for the International Center for Captive Insurance Education.
