Marsh: captives face pivotal moment in risk financing
Marsh has released the 2026 edition of its Captives Benchmarking Report, which according to Marsh arrives at a pivotal moment for risk financing.
The report says that even as commercial market conditions have eased across most lines of business, captive use continues to expand — both in scale and in strategic importance — demonstrating that organisations are looking beyond short-term market cycles to strengthen long-term financial resilience. In 2025, Marsh-managed captives wrote $79.1 billion in gross written premium, and among Fortune 500 organisations that use captives, the growth was particularly strong at 9%. These gains underscore a broader trend: captives are no longer a niche tool reserved for a handful of sophisticated buyers. They are now mainstream and a means of managing volatility, capturing efficiencies, and financing emerging risks.
The data in this year’s report highlights what Marsh says are several important shifts shaping the captive landscape. First, industry adoption is broadening. While the largest premium concentrations remain within 10 core sectors, rapid premium gains in sectors such as chemicals and education show captives’ adaptability to diverse risk profiles and business strategies. Second, domicile patterns are evolving: growth in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, and the expansion of onshore options, have produced an even split between onshore and offshore premium flows in 2025, showcasing owners’ choices in structuring their programs. Third, product and financing innovation is accelerating.
According to the report: “Captives are writing an increasingly wide array of risks — from traditional property and liability to cyber, trade credit, and intellectual property — while reinsurance, third-party business, parametric solutions, and structured programs are becoming growing features of captive strategies.
“Beyond the numbers, the most striking development is how captives are maturing as strategic platforms. New captives typically start small in premium and write one or two lines of business — but, as they prove their value, many expand into multiline vehicles or entities that retain higher levels of risk and support broader enterprise objectives, including benefits funding and market entry. Single parent captives remain the dominant structure, yet growth in alternative vehicles — such as cell arrangements and risk retention groups — illustrates the creative ways organisations are tailoring captives to meet specific operational and geographic needs.
“Taken together, these trends make one thing clear: captives have moved from tactical cost-management vehicles to central elements of enterprise risk strategy. As organisations confront economic, technological, and environmental uncertainty, captives offer a flexible, long-term approach to financing risk, potentially protecting balance sheets and unlocking new competitive advantages. The findings in this report provide a roadmap for understanding where captives are gaining traction today and where they can support the resilience and strategic ambitions of organisations tomorrow.”
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