Philadelphia Financial Group hopes to add to the strong growth the company has achieved this year through its two new subsidiaries in Bermuda.Ken Kilbane, an executive vice-president of the Philadelphia-based provider of life insurance products for high net worth individuals, said the Bermuda companies formed part of the firm’s three-pronged growth strategy.In an interview with The Royal Gazette, Mr Kilbane said the new companies, Philadelphia Financial Life Assurance Company (Bermuda) Ltd and Philadelphia Financial Life International Ltd, marked the expansion of Philadelphia beyond North America.He said the companies would based in the Cumberland House offices of administrator Kane, which will be providing services to Philadelphia Financial. The company will have no permanent staff on the Island, at least to start with.The firm is a leading provider of private placement life and annuity business in the US. Private placement life insurance (PPLI) is an investment, as well as an insurance product, sometimes used by high net worth individuals as a tax-efficient wealth management tool.Last month the 16-year-old firm grew significantly with the acquisition of the private placement insurance business unit of The Hartford Financial Services Group last month.The deal meant that Philadelphia Financial went from administering around $3.5 billion to more than $40 billion in insurance policy accounts and now employs more than 100 people in offices in Philadelphia and New Jersey.Mr Kilbane explained why the company chose Bermuda as a home for the subsidiaries targeting international, non-US business.“Really, the priority was to select a location that was highly regarded by high net worth clients and institutions and advisers,” Mr Kilbane said. “Bermuda has a very strong international reputation and a strong regulatory structure for the insurance industry.”The three-pronged growth strategy the company embarked upon 18 months ago includes growth by acquisition, by organic domestic growth in the US and by international expansion.“We were receiving more and more requests asking why we were not offering our products internationally,” Mr Kilbane said.“The 2012 World Wealth Report by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management shows that about one third of the high net worth people in the world are in North America. It’s a fact that economies continue to globalise and high net worth families are globalising. So we felt like a company providing products to high net worth people had to have global capabilities.”That is where the Bermuda subsidiaries come in.The acquisition of the Hartford unit had “taken us to another level”, Mr Kilbane said, and he hoped that the global distribution of PPLI products by the Bermuda companies would be a route to further growth.Philadelphia Financial also plans to expand organically on the US front through its Alpha Alliance distribution network.Useful website: www.philadelphiafinancial.com