FORTY under 40:Kevin McGinley
Kevin McGinley, VP, captive management, Risk Management Advisors
Kevin McGinley started his career in 2008 as an associate with PwC in Dublin, Ireland, in the insurance audit department, auditing a range of P&C, life, reinsurance, and captive companies. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, he moved to the health insurance department of Aviva in 2012.
Starting as a financial accountant and promoted to finance manager, he was responsible with his team for group financial reporting, group consolidation and Solvency II reporting for the department. McGinley worked as a claims business partner within Aviva, working on forecasting, analytics and claims control metrics for the group.
In 2017 he moved to Risk Management Advisors’ Cayman Islands office, which was branded as Atlas Insurance Management in 2017. At Risk Management Advisors, he has worked directly on and overseen its team of account managers on a wide range of single parent, cell and group captives in multiple offshore and US domiciles. In 2022, he relocated from Cayman to Ireland but continues to work with the team and service the US clients.
McGinley primarily works on developing new captive formations, from initial review, captive feasibility reports including total cost of risk assessments, structuring, domicile analysis, financial projections, collateral and capital reviews, and he coordinates the formation of the captive in its chosen domicile.
He maintains involvement and strategic oversight of a captive after it has formed to ensure a continuation of service to clients alongside the service team. He also oversees a small number of US-domiciled captives on a day-to-day basis.
How did you become involved in captive insurance?
My first experience with captive insurance was with PwC, auditing a range of Irish-domiciled captive insurance companies, including a large self-managed captive for a multinational car rental company. However, my primary involvement started in 2017 when I moved to the Cayman Islands.
“The variety and complexity of the industry ensures that you are always learning and growing.”
I was looking for an opportunity to move abroad to experience different cultures and to have an adventure. The Cayman Islands ticked all the boxes, including beautiful beaches, year-round sunshine and a strong insurance and reinsurance industry. I interviewed with Risk Management Advisors before I moved over to Cayman, and they were fantastic in helping me get relocated and set up in a new country.
There certainly is a steep learning curve for the first 12 months when moving from the commercial industry to captives in a new jurisdiction, as there is such variety to a captive manager’s role.
The variety and complexity of the industry ensures that you are always learning and growing as a professional which is why captive insurance is so enjoyable to work on.
What are the biggest challenges of working in this industry, and what do you find most rewarding?
One of the main challenges I find is that many prospective clients you want to help may not be the right fit for a captive. Their risk management programme may not be developed enough to control potential claims risks, or their rate-on-line may be better priced than perceived by the client. We always try to reduce the total cost of risk where possible, but it’s important to find the right balance between risk appetite, potential exposures, and commercial price structuring.
There are many rewarding aspects to working in this industry, but I find the feasibility process to be the most rewarding. Getting hands-on with the underlying data and financial projections while linking that to overall insurance structure and advising on the advantages of each potential domicile location for that business is a very enjoyable process.
You also get to see how that captive performs and develops over a number of years; the success of a captive can often be linked to the rigorous and detailed feasibility process prior to formation.
Would you recommend the captive insurance industry to young people as a future career path?
The captive insurance industry has great career opportunities for young people. It’s a rapidly growing niche industry, which ensures that there are multiple job opportunities with the ability for people to develop and progress their careers quickly. It’s a global industry which allows people to travel and work in different countries and jurisdictions.
One of the best features of the captives industry is that you connect regularly with business founders and C-suite executives across a range of industries and get to understand parts of their business while providing solutions to their issues.
What developments do you see ahead for captives?
I can see the captives market continuing to grow and supporting innovation and problem-solving for insureds and the industry. Property insurance is continuing as a major coverage issue for business owners, and captives have been at the forefront in addressing coverage gaps and allowing flexibility in restructuring property towers to access the reinsurance market to be price-efficient.
We have seen large growth in insurtech MGAs opening captives to participate in underwriting of their books, which can allow them to drive a profit centre and to show capital and commitment to their reinsurance partners. With developments in AI learning and insurtech investments in technology, this will ensure significant innovations in the commercial as well as captive insurance industry.
Do you think your long-term future remains in the captives market?
Yes, I have found working in the captives industry to be extremely interesting and rewarding. Risk Management Advisors is an exceptional firm to work for, and I very much enjoy my work with the company and our clients. I couldn’t see myself working outside the captive insurance market.
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