Influential Women in Captive Insurance: Fenhua Liu

Fenhua Liu, Assistant deputy commissioner of captive insurance, State of Connecticut

Fenhua Liu is the chief captive insurance regulator of Connecticut. She made the 2024 and 2023 Power 50 list of Captive Review. She has 28 years of broad global experience, expertise, and leadership skills in insurance and risk management. She leads a division with full support across the department to review, license, and examine captive insurers and risk retention groups, propose new pro-captive legislative changes concepts, and support a business environment for the growth and prosperity of the captive insurance industry in Connecticut.

Liu previously worked on healthcare rate-setting and large service contract evaluations at the Connecticut Social Services Department. Prior to that, she was a director of finance with The Travelers Companies, and held three positions in underwriting, project management, and risk analysis with HSB Insurance Company, Munich Re.

She also monitored 11 large corporations’ self-insured pension programmes in Asia and led a variety of projects on pension and healthcare insurance reforms that were organised by the World Bank, Asian Bank, International Monetary Fund.

She holds the designations of Certified Financial Examiner, Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter, Accredited Financial Examiner, Associate in Reinsurance, Associate in Risk Management and Certified Economic Analyst. Liu holds a MS in insurance from University of Hartford and an MS in economics majoring in statistics from Renmin University of China.

How did you get started in the captive insurance industry?

Before joining the Connecticut Insurance Department, my whole career was insurance and risk management including commercial insurance, social insurance, and self-insurance. In 2013, I saw a job posting for an insurance financial examiner position at the Captive Insurance Division of Connecticut Insurance Department that fitted my background very closely, so I applied and was hired by John Thompson, then our chief captive regulator, who brought me to the exciting captives world and provided me with the opportunity to learn about captive insurance.

Who inspired you or acted as a mentor in your career?

Many people throughout my career inspired me or acted as my mentors. I pursued my American dream and immigrated to the US in 2009. Over time, I thought my culture, language, and different background were barriers in my career advancement until 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when my manager, our former chief captive regulator, Janet Grace, unfortunately passed away, and then Commissioner Andrew Mais promoted me to lead our captive insurance division.

Life is unpredictable. I never thought I could get this type of position and be where I am today. Andrew’s full and unwavering confidence and trust in me throughout the four years, especially when I faced challenges with self-doubts, has been incredible. He is also the NAIC president and vice chair of IAIS, but he made his time to understand, support, and guide me, not only as a great manager but also as a mentor for me to learn and do what is right for the best interest of the public and our team success.

He helped me reach potential I never thought I had or could do. With his full support and leadership, Connecticut passed new pro-captive legislation and was a leading domicile in new captive formations for three years in a row. Connecticut captives have received four top awards in the last two years.

What do you think deters people from entering the world of captives?

Many people in the workforce still don’t know about captives or have limited study materials in colleges.

Openings in captive insurance are limited too because service providers or owners tend to contract with other service providers to get work done. When openings are available, those experienced professionals can meet requirements and get hired easily, limiting inexperienced people from entering the world of captives.

How can mentorship and sponsorship programmes be designed to better support the career development of women?

• Set up a pool of women mentors and women mentees (students or women who have just entered the workforce);
• Set up a scholarship/mentorship programme (1 year) for mentees to apply for;
• Match a mentor and mentee by location and interest;
• Arrange meetings/visits between mentors and mentees;
• Sponsor the women mentees or students to attend conferences;
• Give exposures/visibility to women mentees or students;
• Help find internships in the captives industry for students;
• Keep women mentees engaged in the sector (volunteers);
• Follow up with mentees or students two years after they work out of captive industry and encourage them to apply for captive jobs; and
• Students may be able to find full-time captive jobs after having two years of work experience.

In what ways can companies in the sector create a more inclusive culture that actively promotes gender diversity at all levels?

• Executives and HR can provide policies on gender ratios in the evaluations of their inclusivity culture in promotion or hiring;
• Provide tools and support for women managers to manage and lead people; and
• Host women conferences to educate, share experience and support all attendees on leadership.

What challenges are gender-specific to women in the captives industry?

• I notice that there are still fewer women than men in the sector, especially in executive positions.
• Women leaders may have a hard time for others to follow or listen.
• Many women have a hard time to fit in with male professionals during networking, social events, and communications.

“Work with universities on captive education and career planning training for students."

What solutions would you like to see?

• Share information for those executives as role models who have demonstrated with actions on including and supporting women leadership to inspire others;
• Promote women leaders and organise more activities for networking and social events;
• Work with universities on captive education and career planning training for students; and
• Collaborate with women organisations for captive events and women supporting women initiatives.

What are your ambitions?

• Continue to make Connecticut a leading domicile in the world in captive insurance growth while maintaining our standard for the long-term success captives.
• Continue to use a risk and principles-based regulatory approach to improve cost efficiency for captives’ licensing, analyses, and examinations.
• Continue to listen to businesses’ evolving needs to refine our regulations to make Connecticut one of the most innovative, flexible, and business-friendly domiciles.

Click here to read Captive International’s first Influential Women in Captive Insurance publication, celebrating the women transforming the captive sector through their sustained excellence and leadership.

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