Tennessee's captives exceed $1bn in premiums

Domestic captive insurance companies in the State of Tennessee exceeded $1 billion in written premiums for the first time in 2017.

Further to this milestone, the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) approved 52 risk-bearing entities (RBEs) in 2018, including licensing another captive that relocated to Tennessee from outside the US.

The new captives include nine pure captives, four protected cell captives and 39 cell companies.

Companies have moved to Tennessee from Bermuda, Delaware, Montana, Nevada, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and Cayman, St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean.

By contrast to Tennessee only having two captives four years ago, at the end of 2017 the state had 591 RBEs, representing a 9 percent increase over the number of RBEs in 2016.

“Tennessee’s reputation as a business friendly state has helped us become one of the first states now mentioned when corporations discuss where to establish a captive insurance company,” said TDCI Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak. “We are proud that our responsible growth and regulation has resulted in the creation of new jobs and a reported economic impact of over $692 million.”

According to TDCI, the captive industry has created numerous high paying jobs with total direct and indirect spending and investment approaching an estimated $700 million annually in Tennessee, including an estimated $3.1 million in state revenues projected to be generated in Fiscal Year 2018.

Michael Corbett, Director of Captive Insurance, added: “Not only are the size of new captives increasing, we are seeing the maturation of the captive insurance marketplace. Captive owners are discovering better ways to manage risk through their existing program and are putting more risk, and therefore more premiums, into their captives.”