ALTERNATIVE RISK

The world of Alternative Risk encompasses every non-commercial insurance risk financing vehicle or structure whether the approach is simple, such as assuming higher retentions, or complex, such as forming a licensed captive insurance company. These solutions fit every industry and organization of every size. The question is which is right for you. Alternative risk solutions are tools used by our clients to achieve some of the following goals:

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• Control the long-term cost of risk

• Reduce reliance on commercial insurance 

• Better control risk, and

• Capture the savings that come from increased retention and risk management 

 

To do these things well requires an understanding of various program structures, cash flow needs, regulatory requirements, the availability and use of excess insurance or reinsurance, service providers available to meet specific needs, and frameworks for financial reporting and planning.

 

Beyond our independence and objectivity, we bring an understanding of your particular perspective to the consideration of an alternative risk approach. So, whether you are contemplating a stand-alone, newly formed alternative approach, such as a single-parent captive, or you are evaluating the opportunity to join an existing program, such as a pool or trust, we can use our experience and expertise to answer the questions of how these alternatives can work for you. Regardless of whether you want to build a new program, rent someone else’s, or join an ongoing group program, we can help you make the right choice for you.

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Services

 

Our client assistance follows the life cycle of the chosen alternative risk approach. Wherever you might be in the process of alternative risk treatment, we can help with:

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• Education and strategy development

• Feasibility and modeling 

• Formation and related implementation services 

• Operational services, including ongoing advice, performance measurement, service sourcing, and periodic review 

While the following services are discussed in the captive insurer context, similar approaches are applicable to groups, programs, self-insured trusts, and similar vehicles.

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• Viability or Pre-feasibility. Our pre-feasibility work focuses on educating decision-makers on how a captive might work for your organization, what value you might derive from forming a captive, how captives operate, what the risk factors are, what the formation process entails, and guidance on potential service providers and structures.

• Feasibility. In the feasibility phase, we collaborate with other chosen professionals to answer two important questions: (i) “Do we need a captive, and if not, what do we need?” (ii) “If we don’t need a captive, are there other compelling reasons for forming (or joining) one?”

• Formation. When clients decide to form a captive, we provide full post-feasibility (implementation) services. These include project management of the application and licensing process, review and oversight of broker-related excess insurance placement and fronting insurer activities, assistance with administration, identifying and hiring domicile service providers, and other client representation. 

• Operations. Once the captive is formed and operating, we provide two kinds of support services. One is ongoing consulting to the captive owner, the captive’s management, or the captive’s governing board. The other is project-specific or ad hoc engagements, e.g., high-level diagnostic review, strategic use assessment, performance evaluation or business plan change. Our role is to bring broad knowledge and experience base to the issues, challenge the assumptions of other professionals, provide an objective third-party perspective, and serve as catalysts to improve efficiencies and use the captive appropriately in a changing environment.

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Experience

 

• Worked with a successful religious sector self-insured group since the late 1980s.

• Provided ongoing services to several municipal and school district pools since the late 1980s.

• Performed viability and feasibility studies, formed single-parent captives and consulted to the resulting captive boards for organizations in a variety of industries, both for-profit and not-for-profit. 

• Ongoing assistance to a number of single parent captives with strategy, planning, financing decisions, and service provider management as well as periodic strategic operational assessments.

• Performed a variety of performance audits or diagnostic reviews on active captives.

• Assisted existing captives and groups with captive manager or program administrator searches and related service provider sourcing initiatives.

• Evaluated existing professional liability group captives for healthcare organizations and evaluated the feasibility of forming both single parent and group captives for hospitals, physicians, and related providers. For healthcare clients in existing captives, we have reviewed captive financials and operational results for the owners. We have also certified compliance with bond covenants and financing agreements when healthcare clients which both own single-parent captives or participate in group captives.

• Assisted a national services company in forming a single parent captive to front a primary umbrella layer with a significant limit using a rated fronting insurer and a reinsurance trust.

• Designed and procured a multiple-line, combined retention seven-year alternative risk transfer (ART) program for a public sector utility. 

• Analyzed and recommended both for and against executing loss portfolio transfer options.

• Consulted numerous workers’ compensation self-insured groups. 

• Evaluated many offerings presented to clients involving existing group programs, including protected cell captives, public sector pools, association programs, and self-insured groups. Knowing first-hand how these groups typically operate and having the expertise to understand their specific models helps flatten our clients’ learning curve.