Atlas Insurance Management
Martin Eveleigh, chairman of Atlas, discusses the company’s fortunes in 2018 and explains why he expects workers’ compensation to continue to be an important market
How has the first half of 2018 been for Atlas?
Atlas has had a very good first half of the year, perhaps the best ever. We have formed captives writing workers’ compensation, general and auto liability, warranty risks, credit risks, motor truck cargo, and a niche healthcare programme.
In the formation process right now, we also have captives writing workers’ compensation, compensation, general liability and auto, tenant liability, and accident and health.
We have also seen members added to group captives leading to premium growth.
How strong do you think the captive market is?
From what we are seeing, the captive market is strong.
It’s true that there have been a couple of tax cases that went against the taxpayer, but we need to remember that each case depends on its own facts and the fact patterns in those cases may not have been all that good.
It is also worth remembering that other recent cases such as Securitas and Rent-A-Center, which dealt with larger captives, went in favour of the taxpayer.
As far as the soft market is concerned, captives have done well over a number of years during which a soft market has pertained.
Insureds still see advantages in captives that enable them to restructure insurance programmes to make savings, have more control over claims, potentially fund employee benefits and also cover risks on manuscript policy forms.
Looking ahead what do you see impacting the captive market in general over the next 12 months?
It’s hard to see anything very significant happening in the next 12 months that will impact the captive market. I do think solutions for cyber liability will mature and that captives will have a growing role to play there. Gradually, captives will start to address risks associated with the blockchain and artificial intelligence, but I emphasise ‘gradually’. Then, as we get to the middle of next year, changing economic conditions may well have some effect although probably nothing dramatic.
How has your workers compensation business faired in 2018? What trends have you noticed and what trends do you foresee in the future?
Workers’ compensation has been busy for us this year and we expect that to continue. In recent years, smaller employers have been moving away from retro programmes, which gave them potential for back-end savings to guaranteed cost programmes with a high deductible and up-front savings. It makes a lot of sense to finance those deductibles in a captive.
This move to captives is not confined to smaller employers. Larger companies know that rates can’t fall forever and that it is prudent to prepare for future rate rises by restructuring now and putting a captive in place. This view is confirmed by carriers we speak to.
What did you enjoy most about the NCCIA captive conference?
I had a wonderful time at this year’s NCCIA conference. While I wasn’t able to attend many of the educational sessions, I personally had a lot of worthwhile meetings with other attendees. I particularly enjoyed networking at the 70s disco night reception, which Atlas sponsored. It was fun to see everyone dressed up and having a good time.
