It is not too late for captive insurance companies to begin preparing a Brexit contingency plan, according to Will Thomas-Ferrand, international practice leader at Marsh Captive Solutions.
Speaking at the ‘what Brexit means for you’ panel at the 2018 Guernsey Insurance Forum, Thomas-Ferrand, who is responsible for Marsh’s captive domiciles in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, said there was still time for captives to prepare a strategy to deal with the possible issues that may be caused by Brexit.
He explained: “Assuming the captive will have a post-Brexit issue, which some may not, I don’t think it is too late. Fronting can be arranged fairly quickly, that is not a lengthy process.”
“I think it does take some time to look at all the options but we have got five months until March, when the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, that is plenty of time to look at the different options.”
“Enactment of such a plan may not necessarily need to happen until after the transition period, [which is scheduled to close at the end 2020] although there is uncertainty surrounding that.”
Thomas-Ferrand also noted that he had seen “an incredibly small amount” of captives redomiciling ahead of Brexit.
The panel session concluded with a question on what the greatest opportunities that had been lost or postponed by Brexit were.
In response, Thomas-Ferrand turned the question round and suggested that captives were well set to offer more risk management opportunities in the face of Brexit.
He stated: “Brexit itself is a conversation that is effecting captives but actually captives give you more flexibility to design your risk management solution according to the times that we all face.”
“It doesn’t matter what political, industrial, or economic changes we are facing, the captive effectively gives us more flexibility.”
