FORTY under 40: Paige Bell
Paige Bell, VP – alternative risk solutions senior consultant, Lockton.
Paige Bell started her insurance career right after graduating from college. She told Captive International she’ll never forget when her former manager was interviewing on campus at Florida State and she spent about ten minutes telling him about herself and he spent the rest of the interview telling her why she needed to come work at Lockton. It was a tough call, she had a full scholarship to pursue a master’s in economics and he told her he'd never tell her not to pursue education, but to come see him in two years and he’d still offer her the same position with the same pay. She was sold and signed that day. A week after graduation, she packed her car and drove from Tallahassee to Kansas City, ready to start her new career.
The associate account manager role she’d accepted required a year of training within Lockton University. Without a doubt, that laid the groundwork for her career and everything she is able to do today. Following that year she was transferred to Lockton’s southeast private equity group, based in Miami, FL, then Charlotte, NC.
The private equity space is a crash course in any specialty, with so many deals that by two years in she had worked on as many clients and had constructed as many programmes as someone five years her senior. She quickly rose to the account manager role, then account executive. During this time, she was continually challenged by her clients to come to the table with creative solutions that balanced risk tolerance and efficient capital utilisation. Before long she found herself consistently evaluating alternative solutions, including captives and structured solutions.
Over the summer of 2021 an opportunity arose to join the company’s national alternative risk solutions practice and she jumped at the opportunity. She remains a member of this team as a senior alternative risk solutions consultant.
“Once fully immersed in the captive 'life', there was no going back”
How did you first become involved in captive insurance?
My first taste, like many, was on the group captive side. I helped form and now lead our internal national group captive practice group and then subsequently joined our ARS practice. Once fully immersed in the captive “life“, there was no going back. I now also sit on the North Carolina Captive Insurance Association board as secretary.
What are the greatest challenges of working in this industry, and what do you find most rewarding?
I think the most challenging part of the industry is the volume of misinformation. Captives involve tax, legal, finance and insurance strategy and often clients don’t understand the full picture before thinking that a captive is the magic solution to save them money! For this reason, I often level set with a new consulting client during a “demystifying” captives session before we jump into a feasibility study.
Would you recommend the captive insurance industry to young people as a future career path?
I absolutely would recommend it to young people as a future career, I volunteer at my local high schools to speak on career day so more young people know that insurance is such a fantastic space. When they understand the global nature of our business and that it can include foreign travel, their eyes light up! Captive insurance is increasingly becoming a solution, not just for the fortune 500 companies, but for every company that understands risk and wants to better leverage their capital.
What developments do you see ahead for captives?
I think the next step for captives is leveraging ART solutions better to insulate the captive’s balance sheet. I see parametrics and even structured solutions coming into the conversation as reinsurance behind the captive more and more.
Do you think your long-term future remains in the captives market?
Yes! Lockton allows me the opportunity to construct creative solutions for my clients and captives remain at the forefront of those solutions. I have two daughters, I secretly hope at least one of them shares my nerd love of captive insurance.
Click here to read Captive International’s third FORTY Under 40 2025 publication.
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