CICA
CICA President Dan Towle hails the captive industry’s rapid growth, showcased by record attendance at the 2024 Conference, and outlines emerging trends – from talent initiatives driving diversity to private equity’s influx shaking up the job market
Can you provide us with an overview of the key highlights and achievements of the CICA 2024 International Conference?
From the comments I am hearing, people cannot say enough good things about this year’s CICA Conference, which had a record 665 attendees.
When you bring together the best minds in the industry and they are all willing to share the latest insights at CICA’s domicile-neutral event it creates tremendous positive energy and good things happen because of it.
Sessions were well attended. Whether it was the standing-room-only fronting and reinsurance session, the tax update, or captive strategies for addressing challenges related to the increasingly expensive property market.
Participation in CICA’s NEXTGen and Amplify Women programmes grows continuously. Our joint networking programmes have taken off. We were at capacity for this year’s conference luncheon event. The momentum with those two initiatives is exciting and we encourage those who are interested to visit our website for more information.
What specific factors contributed to the remarkable growth in CICA’s membership and attendance at this year’s conference?
We have a great association that attracts many of the leading captive owners and service providers in our industry. The captive industry is experiencing rapid growth and people are looking for innovative strategies and the resources they need, both in-house staff and service providers, to achieve their risk management goals. CICA is known for providing top-quality education and networking.
Annually, we host an outstanding conference where our domicile-neutral environment brings together growing numbers of participants from every sector of the industry including our association and regulatory partners. Throughout the year our programmes to attract and develop a diverse talent pool for the captive industry provide opportunities for learning, serving on committees, giving presentations and networking across the industry. Seasoned professionals have a platform to share their knowledge by providing career advice and captive management guidance.
How do you perceive the current state of the captive insurance industry, and what trends do you anticipate shaping its future?
Captive insurance is experiencing a period of continued growth and prosperity. This extraordinary growth involves new captives being formed, the expanded use of existing captives, and new domiciles emerging around the world.
As more businesses turn to captive insurance, the captives are becoming more sophisticated than ever and more strategic. New technology, better data and evolving risk strategies are giving captives the edge in providing coverage ahead of what the commercial market can provide.
We are also seeing continued interest from private equity firms regarding making investments in captive management and other areas of the captive insurance industry. This is providing needed capital for organisations to grow and have the money to pay higher than average wages to hire key people as retirements, creating new opportunities. With the increased wage pressure and higher demand for qualified individuals, I expect to see even more people on the move.
While this will cause some short-term pain, ultimately this may be a good thing for the industry. The wage pressure will help our industry attract top talent. If the captive industry’s reputation is as a high-paying sector, it will be easier to attract talent.
Could you elaborate on the significance of the NEXTGen and Amplify Women initiatives in fostering diversity and talent development within the captive insurance sector?
Finding talent for our growing industry continues to be a priority, and what CICA is doing with Amplify Women and NEXTGen goes towards overcoming some of the challenges we have not addressed in the past. Further, developing a broader, more diverse pool of potential captive professionals is an important growth strategy.
Diversity can have positive effects on business performance from greater innovation and skill sharing to increased productivity and higher revenues.
Some reports show that diverse teams deliver 60 per cent better results and make better decisions up to 87 per cent of the time.
CICA is proud to be leading this effort for the captive insurance industry and firmly believes we are making a difference.
With the increasing participation of women in speaking roles at the CICA Conference, what benefits or impact do you foresee for the industry as a whole?
When you have a group of talented people cheering for each other and supporting each other, it is amazing what you can accomplish. One of Amplify Women’s initiatives is to support more women as speakers at industry conferences.
This allows the women to showcase their talents and expertise. We are excited that 46 per cent of our speakers at the CICA Conference were women. It is great for both our attendees and our industry.
Being domicile-neutral allows CICA to bring together the best speakers regardless of domicile affiliation. Our industry is composed of many female experts, and we are proud to give them an opportunity to showcase their expertise.
CICA is not only leading in this area in the captive industry but also leading in the broader insurance industry.
Could you share insights into the criteria and process for selecting CICA Awards and Essay Contest winners, and what distinguishes them in the industry?
The captive insurance industry is rich with individuals and organisations that have shaped and fostered its growth. CICA’s annual awards are designed to honour their generous contributions of knowledge, leadership and best practices.
Their contributions and successes often span decades and have benefited the broader industry, not just an individual domicile. Anyone can be nominated for the awards and our CICA Board members make up the award selection committee.
Our essay contest is judged by a diverse mix of experts from our CICA board of directors, ensuring the essays are evaluated from differing views and perspectives.
Essays are scored on the quality of their research, how they addressed the risk management and insurance issues and their use of innovative ideas.
Looking ahead, what are some of the key priorities or initiatives that CICA plans to focus on in the coming year to further support the growth and development of the captive insurance community?
With record membership, we are in the unique position of exploring and expanding member benefits.
The member survey results gathered in 2023 yielded requests for additional high-quality education and the continuation of meaningful networking opportunities. We look forward to where these conversations will take us and to our commitment to providing high value to our members.
We plan to continue building off the strong foundations already established by our NEXTGen and Amplify Women Committees. While we have had great success, there is still much more to do. I expect both initiatives to expand and we will see more involvement from a broader group in the coming year.
We have increased our commitment to our federal advocacy resources in Washington, D.C. We feel this is critical as our industry continues to grow, and it is important to have key representation to support and defend our industry as we are often challenged by being misunderstood.
