Bermuda captives can benefit from emerging risks

Bermuda is in a unique place to benefit from the challenges of the post-COVID-19 world, as new risks emerge and make the industry think about how to cope with them.

A panel discussion at the Bermuda Captive Conference addressed some of these emerging issues, with contributions from Gavin Woods, partner at Carey Olsen; Nicolas Plianthos, senior vice president at Marsh Management Services; and Colin Kelley, managing director of Ed Broking Bermuda.

Moderated by Oceana Yates, senior vice president - captives at Davies Captive Management, the panel agreed that captives are increasingly being seen as a solution for a wide range of emerging issues for the insurance industry, both globally and on Bermuda in the post-pandemic era.

Some of the areas that were particularly highlighted by the panel included environmental, social and governance, cyber, crypto-currencies and insurtechs.

In terms of insurtechs, the panel said that many of these were looking into setting up captives in order to prove the viability of their offering and demonstrate to wider investors that they have skin in the game.

The panel also said that companies were looking closely at what risk was and was not covered during the pandemic, with risk managers taking a special interest in areas like business interruption cover, just in case another pandemic occurs.