The Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) has revealed the case study topics for its 2022 student essay contest, which is centred around the theme of ‘Using captive insurance solutions to address coverage gaps’. Next year’s contest is sponsored by Strategic Risk Solutions (SRS). As always, essay contest winners will receive cash prizes, along with the opportunity to present their essays at the CICA International Conference and publication in Captive Insurance Times. The essay contest is open to two-person teams of US college insurance and risk management students. In the contest, teams demonstrate how and why a captive can be utilised as a form of alternative risk financing for emerging risks and loss exposures. Case studies are designed to focus on developing real-world captive strategies for fictional organisations to provide member value and address coverage gaps for both current and emerging risks. The first case study for 2022 is centred around the American Cannabis Association (ACA) , which is seeking to form a captive to provide the required liability coverage for general, product and automobile liability insurance, as well as cyber risk. In the scenario, ACA also wishes for the captive solution to help encourage loss control and the sharing of best risk management practices among its members. The second case study concerns the Craft Breweries Association (CBA), which will determine if and how a captive can be implemented to provide medical stop-loss coverage to participants, as well as help members to control future health insurance costs for both employers and employees. Furthermore, CBA has a long-term priority to administer a form of voluntary benefit offering to employees to provide a safety net in the event of a serious health issue. Dan Towle, president of CICA, comments: “We hear from young professionals that they want to be challenged in their careers and make a difference. Captive insurance provides those types of opportunities. You can see by the case studies that captive insurance is at the forefront of addressing risk management issues.” Brady Young, president and CEO of SRS, and CICA essay contest sponsor, adds: “Captives have long provided stability and control over insurance costs for many organisations. With higher premiums due to the continuing hard market, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and new and emerging risks, the benefits that captives can provide have never been greater.” Last year, Ashley Martin and Max Bernstein, juniors from Saint Joseph’s University, were named winners of the essay contest after proposing a group captive as a solution to provide insurance coverage for 30,000 college student housing rentals in the US.
