The North Carolina Captive Insurance Association (NCCIA) Annual Conference kicked off this week with Thomas Adams, president and CEO, thanking those in the industry who have helped make the state’s captive market the success it is today.
In his opening speech of the third annual NCCIA conference, Adams explained to more than 200 delegates that as a result of the industry’s hard work, the state now has a “vibrant, growing, ethical captive industry that is poised for growth in this domicile”.
He gave a special mention to former insurance commissioner Wayne Goodwin and former senior deputy commissioner Ray Martinez for their hard work to make captive insurance in the state a reality.
The duo were presented with individual awards for their hard work by Adams and chair of the NCCIA, Jeremy Colombik.
Adams went on to discuss how North Carolina crafted its captive laws. He said: “We have had a tendency in this country to over regulate the industry, to the detriment of our people.”
“I believe that for the more recent captive domiciles we have been able to craft legislation, establishing and promulgating the best regulatory practices to create appropriate frameworks for regulation rather than simply making an industry jump through hoops to make the regulator look ‘strong’.”
North Carolina learned from the experiences of Tennessee, South Carolina, Delaware and others when drafting its captive statue.
In 2013, North Carolina created a statutory framework that set an “appropriate regulatory standard that has become the cutting edge for captive regulation, and assures that captives in North Carolina are doing business the right way”, Adams said.
The state went “a step further” when a committee chaired by Jonathan Reich developed a voluntary code of ethics for those captives and their service providers that do business in the state.
Adams suggested that the code of ethics “moves North Carolina a step ahead of other domiciles”.
He called for other domiciles to follow the state’s lead and establish their own codes of ethics, even offering to make North Carolina’s available as an example for other to adopt.
He concluded: “The important thing is this industry should live up to its values and responsibilities to the public and that goes beyond simply satisfying the regulations.”