CICA Special Section

CICA: Ready to "weather the storm"

CICA International Conference • March 8-10, 2009
Hyatt Grand Champions Resort • Indian Wells, California

By Michael J. Moody, MBA, ARM

Planning for an annual conference is a challenge. Selecting topics and getting speakers a year in advance while ensuring that the information is still relevant is normally a difficult task. In an economic environment like today’s, however, it is doubly difficult. Nevertheless, the leadership of the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) has managed to do just that. Aptly titled “Weathering the Storm—Captive Contributions,” this year’s annual international conference is scheduled for March 8-10 in Indian Wells, California.

As always, the domicile-neutral approach that CICA provides offers ample educational opportunities for all captive industry participants. Whether a firm is just considering forming a captive insurance company, or the organization has had a captive for years, CICA has sessions directed at your specific needs. The annual conference, which is in its 37th year, highlights the challenges ahead for both single parent captives and group captive arrangements, regardless of where the captive may be domiciled.

A highlight of the conference is the keynote address by Robert Crandall, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines, who will speak on “Leading through Tough Times—Innovation, Technology, Execution.” Crandall is best known for revolutionizing the travel industry. During his tenure at American Airlines, he was considered by many to be the most creative, respected and controversial executive in modern aviation. This intriguing trailblazer should provide unique insights that will benefit all participants at the CICA opening general session.

In addition to the keynote address, the opening session will include presentations of two of the captive industry’s highest honors—the 2009 CICA Distinguished Service Award, as well as the 2009 Outstanding Captive. While these awards have been given only for the past several years, the list of recipients has been impressive.

Educational opportunities abound at this year’s conference. “Captive 101” and “Risk Retention Group 101” are sessions designed to provide critical data for any captive participant, whether rookie or veteran. This year will also include a preconference session on health care captives. This session is designed to help participants to position health care captives for upcoming changes in the marketplace. It will include discussion of rising premiums, coverage restrictions and reduced limits as well as policy terms and conditions.

One of the most intriguing sessions will be “Jungle Risk Management—Risk Lessons from the African Bush,” where Gert Cruywagen uses examples from his book Jungle Risk Management. During this unique session, Cruywagen will talk about how animals in the African bush manage to survive and not become prey.

Several sessions are continuations from the prior year’s conferences. One of these presentations has become one of the most anticipated sessions—the CICA fronting survey. Over the past few years, the survey has been broadened to include important data for all captive owners. Traditional information regarding fronting fees and services, and reinsurance costs and limits form the core of this study. However, the study now also includes data on employee benefits in captives, as well as expanded financial information. CICA’s “Best Practices Follow-up” session provides updated information from last year’s captive best practice guidelines.

A wide variety of other industry-specific sessions will provide information that is critical to captive owners and captive participants. For example, “Regulations—What Can We Expect?” will offer some insight into the changes in the regulatory environment that will certainly follow the most recent financial services meltdown. Employee benefits in captive insurance companies also will be covered in one of the session’s specific case studies. Because reinsurance is always a hot topic, a special session titled “Captive Reinsurance Characteristics—How to Tame the Unique Animal,” provides information as to how reinsurance markets analyze captives’ risk.

Another session is titled “Small and Medium-Size Captives—Risk Management, Taxes and Wealth Transfer Benefits.” This is an important session because much of the growth in the captive movement over the past few years has been made by mid-sized corporations. It is designed to help companies that want to form and or operate a “mini” captive.

Domicile selection is often one of the most critical decisions a captive owner can make, and “Domicile Selection—Managing Captives in Multiple Domiciles” can provide important data on this subject. And because most captive owners are interested in the IRS position regarding the captive, CICA will offer “Tax Issues…Now and Later.” This session will cover what to expect from the new administration in Washington as well as the ever-popular onshore/offshore tax discussions. Any changes in the IRS position will also be addressed during this session.

The CICA International Conference offers a great variety of topics on the captive landscape, not only from the sessions but in the exhibit hall and wherever informal conversations can take place with other participants. This is an excellent opportunity for brokers and agents who wish to explore the advantages of captive insurance companies for their clients.

For more information, go to www.captiveassociation.com.