The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) has named Jonathan Habart as director of its captive insurance section. Habart previously served as the captive insurance section’s assistant director since October 2020, and has been interim director since August 2021 following Belinda Fortman’s departure. Other previous roles in the department include staff examiner and captive insurance specialist, before which Habart held various roles in the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration. Commenting on the appointment, Commissioner Carter Lawrence says: “Jonathan proved to be the strongest candidate for the position because of his proven leadership, institutional and regulatory knowledge and his close working relationships with Tennessee’s numerous captive companies and the Tennessee Captive Insurance Association.” “With Jonathan firmly in the director’s role, I am confident that Tennessee will continue to build on our reputation as a first-choice domicile for captive insurance companies both domestically and internationally.” Assistant commissioner for insurance Bill Huddleston adds: “Tennessee’s success as a captive insurance domicile involves making improvements and modernisations to the state’s regulations in order to create a landscape where captive insurance can flourish.” “I believe Jonathan’s promotion will prove to be the latest important improvement for captive insurance in Tennessee and will help continue years of momentum that have made the Volunteer State one of the top captive domiciles globally.” Recent modernisations to Tennessee’s captive statute include the authorisation of parametric insurance coverage, as well as reducing the statutory capital required from protected cell captive insurers from US$250,000 to $100,000. The department notes that Tennessee is currently ranked tenth worldwide for captive domiciles, and is the sixth largest domicile in the US, with 150 active licensed companies and 336 cells with annual gross written premium of more than $1.72 billion.
