30 of Delaware’s 46 new captives in 2018 were conditional licenses

The State of Delaware formed 46 captive insurers in 2018, 30 of which were the domicile's recently introduced conditional licenses, insurance commissioner Trinidad Navarro has revealed.

“Captive insurance formations faced a number of challenges in 2018, due to recent changes in tax law. Despite the headwinds, Delaware’s having knowledgeable captive regulators continues to attract quality applicants," said Navarro.

On October 16, Governor John Carney signed into law House Bill 334, an act to amend Title 18 of the Delaware Code relating to captive insurance, to authorise the insurance commissioner to issue conditional certificates of authority to captive insurance company applicants, which authorises the captive to conduct business while the commissioner completes the review of the application materials.

The conditional licensing programme is only available to certain captive managers who satisfy specific standards set by the Department of Insurance. If an approved captive manager needs a captive insurance license by a certain date, then they are encouraged to seek a conditional license.

Captive International  spoke to Steve Kinion, director of Delaware’s captive insurance bureau, about conditional licensing and its rationale in December.

Delaware is the third largest captive domicile in the US, and fifth largest on the world. In total, Delaware's captives generate more than $12.5 billion of annual captive insurance premium.

Navarro added: “Besides recognising the efforts of my captive director Steve Kinion and our captive team, I also thank the members of the Delaware General Assembly who unanimously voted for the conditional license legislation, Governor Carney for signing it, as well as the Delaware Captive Insurance Association for their support.”