The adoption of AI in captive operations is a rapidly evolving topic, with AI tools advancing at a rapid pace: a major development every six months, while adoption rates vary greatly not only from one industry to another, but also between competitors within the same industry. It is therefore useful to take stock of the adoption of AI by captives and their managers in the first quarter of 2026.

Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority has authorized its first new captive insurer of 2026, marking the third formation in the jurisdiction within less than a year as it actively pursues Asian market expansion. CNNC Captive Insurance Limited, established by China National Nuclear Corporation, brings Hong Kong’s total captive count to seven insurers. The formation represents a significant shift for the jurisdiction, which had remained relatively dormant for several years with

Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) marks 60 years in global employee benefits, highlighting its 127-country network and a forward agenda focused on digital transformation, analytics, inclusivity and sustainability.

MAXIS Global Benefits Network (MAXIS GBN) in September 2025 launched MAXIS+, an enhanced suite of health data insights and wellness services for its multinational clients. The MAXIS+ services have been designed to help multinationals drill deeper into their claims and truly understand their employee health. The new range of services includes a sophisticated new medical claims dashboard that has the most up-to-date data, allowing multinationals to generate bespoke reports and create

Adriana Scherzinger has a rich background in the insurance industry, which has been highlighted by her recent appointment as Zurich Insurance Group’s group head of captives. She has been with Zurich since 2005, having held various significant roles across different regions, including Latin America and the Middle East, and more recently in the U.S. and Switzerland​​. Scherzinger’s educational background includes an Executive MBA from Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS) in July 2022 announced it had merged its captive solutions team into its multinational business. AGCS’s multinational business provides ART (alternative risk transfer), global programs, captive fronting, and reinsurance to large and mid-sized companies as far as P/C coverage is concerned. Guy Money, previously global head of product at AGCS, is the new global head of multinational business. He is based in

Global employee benefits network IGP in February 2022 announced the launch of a Center of Expertise (CoE) for Reinsurance to Captive and Global Underwriting Programs. The new CoE represents a departure from IGP’s long-standing focus on pooling. Alongside the more traditional multinational pooling programs, IGP has expanded its offer to Global Underwriting and Reinsurance to Captive programs and now introduces a re-designed operational workflow that facilitates their implementation either

The French government had promised to review the tax framework for captives to encourage their creation in France. However, in November 2021, it appeared that the measure would not be part of the 2022 Finance Bill. The creation of a specific mechanism allowing captives to smooth their reserves over time, i.e. equalization reserves, is understood to be considered by the European Union as a “state aid mechanism”, and therefore

As conditions continue to tighten in the commercial insurance market, more captive insurance companies are being created, according to a newly released Marsh Captive Solutions report. The September 2021 report, titled The Captive Landscape: Global Growth Affirms Captives’ Value in Solving Business Challenges, is based on Marsh Captive Solutions’ annual benchmarking survey of more than 1,300 Marsh-managed captive insurance companies. This year’s report is Marsh’s 14th edition. So far this year,

Due to the coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak, the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) cancelled its 2020 International Conference. The event had been slated to take place on March 8-10, 2020 in California, USA. No new date has been announced at the time of publication.

The Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) 2020 International Conference will take place on March 8-10, 2020, at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage, California. The conference theme in 2020 is “Building on the Best”. The CICA conference explores new uses of captives, how to engage new talent, and outlines best practices. A Professional Development Track provides training for captive and risk management professionals. Conference

Burlington, Vermont, USA-based Distributed Ledger Governance Association (DLGA) in July 2019 launched a blockchain working group dedicated to captive reinsurance companies. The U.S. state of Vermont is a major domicile for captive insurers and reinsurers. DLGA’s mission statement is “to enable [its] members to successfully demonstrate and accelerate commercialization of their distributed ledger technology (DLT). [DLGA believes] this can best be accomplished through effectively engaging with government and stakeholders

Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) and global consulting and digital solutions company Accenture in April 2019 announced the release of a new blockchain technology solution to be applied to the employee benefits sector. The blockchain technology is reported to facilitate data sharing, thereby  increasing transparency within the reinsurance process for captive or pooling services. It is also designed to reduce processing errors through the use of smart contracts and automated

Luxembourg-based captive manager Sogecore in April 2019 acquired Abacus Risk Management Services in Malta. Abacus manages and operates captives and insurance carriers on behalf of their owners; it also offers Protected Cell Company (PCC) services. What is a PCC? A PCC is essentially a slice of a single insurance or reinsurance carrier that operates separately from other such slices in the same carrier. The carrier’s license and support functions

Replicating an earlier deal in 2017 between the European Union (E.U.) and the United States (U.S.), the latter in January 2019 signed a “covered agreement” with the United Kingdom (UK) that protects their respective international insurers and reinsurers when doing business with each other. The new covered agreement basically provides for a limited but very useful form of mutual recognition of reinsurance companies and of (re)insurance regulators. The existing

With large international companies managing and financing their group-wide risks centrally, there is a pressing need for a central risk management tool. Captive concepts, which have been around for many years, answer this need and have become very popular in risk management.

GBV: Thank you all for agreeing to this interview. Can we start with a history of captives in general and of the use of captives for employee benefits over the past 25 years?

China’s insurance regulator, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), in February 2018 “temporarily” took over Anbang Insurance Group. Its chairman Wu Xiaohui in June 2017 was detained by authorities and is now facing prosecution on charges including fundraising fraud and embezzlement. Anbang’s growth was driven by high-yield, investment-type insurance products, many of which allowed redemption after as little as two years with little or no penalties. The growth helped fund

Willis Towers Watson (WTW) in October 2017 announced that Paul Devitt has joined its Global Services and Solutions consultancy team as a director, based in London, U.K. According to Mark Cook, a director with the WTW Global Services team and a frequent speaker on the global E.B. conferences circuit, E.B. captives consulting “is an area that is growing fast as more and more companies look to leverage their scale

Sun Life Financial and Pareto Captive Services in October 2017 announced a new stop-loss group captive solution, Legend Re, which will be available in the U.S. for policies effective January 1, 2018. The initiative is designed to reduce claims volatility for small and medium self-funded employers or fully-insured employers transitioning to self-funding in order to realize cost savings. Employers in a group captive typically have under 500 employees, are

Interest in using captive programs as risk-management tools has been slowly growing within the Employee Benefits (EB) community for some time. But recently it has been gaining momentum, as multinational corporations have begun to realize the potential the concept holds.

The management of employee benefit plans through captives continues to gain traction with multinational corporations in all sectors of industry. Captives are rarely the beginning but generally the end point of a risk management journey. Every journey has a starting point, of course. This year’s European Captive Forum (ECF) in Luxembourg included several employee benefit related breakout sessions. One was called “Getting Started – What Do You Need to Consider and What Is the Role of HR?”

The 2017 edition of the World Captive Forum will take place from January 29 to 31, 2017, in Boca Raton, Florida. The two-day main program includes several sessions on employee benefits captives, including “Adding Benefits to Your Property/Casualty Captive”, “Medical Stop-Loss: Single-Parent and Group Captive Solutions”, “Medical Stop-Loss: Single-Parent and Group Captive Solutions”, “Benefits Data: Its Role in Rating and Reserving”, “Legal and Regulatory Update for Benefits Captive Programs”

Insurance broker and risk advisor Marsh in May 2016 announced that Nick Durant will lead Marsh’s Global Captive Solutions Practice, taking over from Chris Lay, who has been named President and CEO of Marsh Canada. Mr. Durant will be based in New York and report to John Drzik, President of Marsh’s Global Risk and Specialties division. Mr. Durant most recently served as Marsh’s global analytics sales leader. Prior to joining

The 2016 edition of the European Captive Forum will be held in Luxembourg on 8 and 9  November 2016. The 2016 agenda is not yet available, but it is worth noting that six sessions of the 2014 edition out of 37 were devoted to employee benefits or life insurance, as opposed to the ever-dominant theme, non-life coverages. That proportion is significantly higher than the prevalence of employee benefits among

Most multinational companies have a single property and casualty insurance policy that covers their factories and offices around the world in case of flood or fire or theft. But when it comes to global employee benefits, many have a different contract—or even many more than one—for each country, through several brokers, and a pooling or captive arrangement to boot.

Captive insurance has been an increasingly popular alternative risk transfer mechanism for U.S. companies for decades. But what may come as a surprise is that one of the great growth opportunities isn’t a new property or casualty exposure. It’s employee benefits. Some seemingly minor changes in the U.S. regulatory landscape may go a long way in explaining the renewed interest in employee benefits captives – but read on: Peter