FORTY under 40: Matt Smith
Matt Smith, Senior account manager, Strategic Risk Solutions
Matt Smith focuses on the management of a portfolio of captive insurance companies domiciled in Tennessee and other locations throughout the Eastern US. He began with Strategic Risk Solutions in 2017 as a CPA with more than 10 years of accounting experience.
He was previously an audit manager with Crowe Horwath where he oversaw the audit of more than 60 831(b) captive insurance companies and several GAAP and statutory-based audits of traditional property & casualty insurance companies.
How did you become involved in captive insurance?
My first project in public accounting, fresh out of university, was assisting in assembling application and feasibility binders for a group of captives that were seeking licence approval. The concept of a captive was a novel one to me but one that captured my interest that drew me back to the industry throughout my career.
What are the biggest challenges of working in this industry, and what do you find most rewarding?
The significant challenges we see day to day are often ones that are the most rewarding to overcome, but they almost all relate to communication in one form or another. A tremendously diverse set of specialties must come together to form and operate a captive from risk management, actuaries, accountants, treasury, investment management, brokers, TPAs, regulators, attorneys, and many others; all coming from various vantage points.
The captive manager often becomes a prism through which the kaleidoscope of expert knowledge is focused into a single output that all can see, understand, and follow. The rewarding part is watching the collective “Eureka!” moment for all parties involved as the project comes into focus and plans become actioned.
Would you recommend the captive insurance industry to young people as a future career path?
For the next generation of professionals, the industry would do well to recognise it is speaking to a young generation which has a great capacity for passionate engagement so long as they truly feel they are contributing to something that is visibly meaningful. Most young professionals and students I’ve talked to at career fairs and educational events alike want to know how they can make a difference.
As an industry, we have a unique advantage of being able to concisely provide anecdotes evidencing a track record of young professionals’ contributions to the industry, and also a need for new professionals that can help contribute in new ways through their unique experiences. Whether those contributions are creative new coverage offerings and entity structures or helping the industry intelligently adopt emerging technologies to facilitate improved outcomes in operations, underwriting, and information, this next generation has tremendous capacity for making their mark on the industry, and it’s important that we not only tell them, but show them.
There are lots of opportunities for industry organisations to outreach to universities and their student organisations to get the message out about the captives industry, and most student organisations are happy to take those calls, bring you on to campus, and get the messaging out there.
“We are on the frontier of solving some of the business world’s most challenging issues.”
What developments do you see ahead for captives?
No hot-takes here from me, unfortunately. As captives take a larger and often central role in businesses’ risk management operations, I think we’re likely to see them continue to take higher retentions, and expand coverage offerings. I would also expect an increased interest from captives as sellers of risk as their owners look not necessarily to maximise the captive retentions, but to optimise their risks as their captives mature.
I also expect the rapidly evolving regulatory environment creating competition among domiciles will continue, making it easier for captives to react more timely to commercial market offerings, while also lowering some barriers to entry for others to get their captive off the ground.
Do you think your long-term future remains in the captives market?
Unquestionably, yes. As an industry, we are on the frontier of solving some of the business world’s most challenging issues. As a byproduct of that, I constantly find myself among some of the most thoughtful, creative, intelligent, and engaging professionals with backgrounds I could not have imagined when I started my career.
Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
