Texas looking to tweak cell and group legislation
The number of captives domiciled in Texas has continued to grow this year, as the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) takes steps to become a more appealing domicile option.
Roy Hock, Valero director of risk finance, earlier this year spoke to Captive Review about what made Texas a particularly attractive domicile for Texas-based businesses. Hock is also vice president of the Texas Captive Insurance Association (TxCIA).
Speaking at the annual captive conference run by the TxCIA today, the TDI’s captive specialist Andrew Norton explained how he had been working closely with the association to advance legislation for group captives and cell captives in the state.
“We are working with them to try and develop legislation, which would be good,” he said.
“We’ve been in discussions and it’s going well, but you’ve got to read the law and write the law, so it does take a bit of time. But Roy has been very accommodating and easy to work with, and we’re all pulling for that.”
Providing an update on the number of captives currently domiciled in Texas, Norton said the department expects to approve the state’s 14th captive of 2026 on Monday, after 14 formed in 2025 and 12 formed in 2024.
This new captive would take the total number of captives in Texas up to 107, after finishing 2025 with 96 captives.
There have been three captives to surrender their Texas licence so far this year, which compares to four in 2025 and six in 2024.
Norton also confirmed that captive premium written by Texas captives was $17.3 billion in 2025, a rise from $11.3 billion at the end of 2024.
The total assets under management for Texas captives was $43.4 billion at the end of 2025, up from $37.8 billion at the end of 2024.
Norton, who took up the role in March this year, said that new captive applications are generally being approved within four weeks, with business plan changes within existing captives taking on average seven to 10 business days. Norton also promises to respond to all email enquiries within three business days.
Speaking on the state’s appetite for approving new captives Norton said the domicile, known for housing very large captives, does not discriminate based on size, and was interested in looking at applications for captives of all sizes.
“We’re not shopping for captives. If you own a captive domiciled out of state, I’m not coming here to ask you to bring it to Texas, but if are interested in forming a captive in Texas I’m happy to chat with you and work with you through that process,” Norton added.
“As long as you meet the statutory requirements, your business plan makes sense and is allowed within what the legal requirements are you’re going to be treated the same.”
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