The captive industry continues to be misunderstood, according to Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) president Dan Towle.
Speaking in the opening address at the CICA 2019 conference, Towle suggested this misunderstanding provides “both challenges and opportunities”.
He explained: “The challenges come from addressing increased scrutiny on several fronts, whether it is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US or the global impacts of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).”
Towle noted that CICA and the European Captive Insurance and Reinsurance Owners Association (ECIROA) submitted comments to the OECD about their base erosion and profit shifting action plan in the summer of 2018.
He said CICA continue to actively monitor the situation in Washington and evaluate all its options on how best to support the industry.
Towle explained: “In the US the entire captive community are watching the activity in the state of Washington with great concern. The outcome of the Microsoft situation and the insurance commissioner’s new stance on captives is very troubling.”
“Misunderstanding of how captives operate continues to proliferate, and CICA continues to take a leadership role in increasing the understanding of the responsible and correct use of captives and the importance of best practices.”
Towle said that CICA continued to act and advise according to the mantra “do captives right, or don’t do them at all”.
According to Towle, the last year has been “exciting, challenging and rewarding” and “has held a few surprises”.
He added: “It has been an exciting time for CICA and we have kept our voice at the forefront of the industry”.
