 |
 |
 |
|
Special Section—2007 CICA International Conference CHANGING OF THE GUARD Each year, the Captive Insurance Companies Association’s (CICA) International Conference marks the changing of leadership of the CICA Board of Directors. The 2007 Conference will see Les Boughner installed as the new CICA Board chair. Boughner, who works for Zurich North America in Chicago, Illinois, serves in a matrix role for Zurich, “looking after our Fortune 500 companies located primarily in the Midwest.” He notes that while he does not have direct captive responsibilities on Zurich’s behalf, all of his customers do have captives and, as a result, he is very involved with them. He says he has been active in CICA for about 10 years and says that he was very “supportive of CICA from the start.” Boughner notes that one of the things that drew him to CICA was the domicile-neutral nature of the group, and he points out that it remains one of the central values of CICA today. “We are just here to promote the growth of the captive industry and we need to make it clear that we do not play favorites.” He says that “we need to continue to foster the view that CICA is here to support the industry growth, and that is a global support.” He says that is one of the issues that he wants to concentrate on this year, “by taking advantage of this global view.” As a result, Boughner is looking for growth in CICA’s overseas members. Many larger, non-U.S. companies have a significant U.S. presence and this frequently results in a major workers compensation exposure, he notes. Like many U.S. organizations, they have found that many times a captive can be successfully utilized in these situations. Providing information about this process is one way to interest international members. Another goal of Boughner’s is one that he shares with previous chairs: getting U.S. captive owners more involved in CICA. He says that the association and the Board spent significant time working to attract more captive owners in 2006. In that regard, during 2006 CICA retained the services of an association-related advertising firm to assist with the efforts to grow the membership. One area that has been front and center for the past few years and will also be a centerpiece in 2007 is to determine what the members want and then give it to them. He indicated that feedback from the membership has been the driving force for many of the recent decisions the Board has made. “A good example is the topic selection at this year’s annual conference,” Boughner says. The incoming chair sees significant growth potential for captives. “There is still a lot of upside to it.” He points to the potential for employee benefits development as adding “a whole new twist in the captive area.” This has resulted in “a lot of attention from corporations that either do not have a captive or have an inactive one.” But like many within the captive industry, Boughner says, “I do not understand today’s slow, methodical growth.” He asks, “What am I missing?” He does feel, however, that there is still a lack of understanding about captives on the human resources side of the house. Over the past few years, the employee benefits area has made some progress, but he thinks that, “at some point, it will just take off.” Boughner is aware that 2007 may well be another soft market for the property and casualty industry and, as a result, it may have an impact on interest in captives. However, he does not believe that it will be a big deal. “All the soft market does is stabilize the captive development.” He points out that the insurance industry has found out that “over time there is very little shrinkage in the captive count as a result of a soft market.” Most people move to the captive alternative with a view of a long-term strategy. Further, he indicates, “Once the hard market returns, captive formations start to ramp up again.” Another priority that Boughner will be working on in 2007 is to increase the technology invest-ment that was started in 2006. With the completion of the new www.CICAworld.com Web site in 2006, he wants CICA to increase its ability to be a global repository of captive knowledge and data. He would like to see CICA become the single source of objective captive information. As a result, since CICA remains the only captive domicile-neutral association, it will be able to continue protecting the objectivity of the association. It’s clear that Boughner has firm ideas about his priorities for the 2007 year and is looking forward to another year of major advancements for CICA and captive owners worldwide. * |
|
|||
| ||||
