Bermuda must improve its marketing game if it is to remain the jurisdiction of choice for the world’s captive insurance industry, a panellist said today at the Bermuda Captive Conference at the Pier Six complex in Hamilton.

The island pioneered the captive concept in the 1960s, and now lists more than 600 captives writing more than $30 billion in gross premiums annually, with assets of more than $142 billion.

Captive International reported last month: “Vermont licensed a total of 38 new captive insurance companies in 2023, taking it to a total of 659 licensed captives, consisting of 632 active and 27 dormant captives. At the start of 2024, it has already licensed 9 new captives in January.”

KPMG has reported 657 captive insurance companies licensed by the Insurance Supervision Division of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

There is a continuing cry for Bermuda to do more to promote the largest domicile of captive professionals among the jurisdictions.

Heidi Lawson is an equity partner and head of Insurance and Technology at Fenwick and West, a law firm in Palo Alto, California.

She said: “There’s a lot of considerations, but I have to say, time and time again, when we start going through the domiciles — the typical domiciles that we do comparison with are the Caymans, Bermuda and Vermont – and very often we’re coming back to Bermuda because of the flexibility, because there’s an exit strategy, because there’s companies like Ace that started as a captive and then became a fully licensed insurer in due course.”

She also noted the importance of the island’s reputation for having robust regulation.

However, Ms Lawson warned: “One thing I have to say about the other jurisdictions is they are out there marketing. One of the things we’ve really noticed at the World Captive Conference and other conferences is, Bermuda is not there.

“And I think that’s really been missing the last couple of years because of the message about the flexibility, and particularly for the technology companies.

“The flexibility, all the points that I made earlier, are so important to companies but there’s no voice. When we’re going around to the different captive conferences in the United States, we’ll see other international jurisdictions, but we don’t see Bermuda.

“That message is getting lost because when we sit down and counsel a client about Solvency II and being recognised by the [National Association of Insurance Commissioners], and the flexibility, and the ability to write a portion of third party risk, Bermuda just naturally rises to the top and I think it would be great to see a little bit more of that out there.

“We’ve talked to clients, and they’re re-domesticating their captives now to Bermuda because of the flexibility, having started in other jurisdictions in the United States.”

Ms Lawson was speaking on the panel “Bermuda Captives: Setting the Standard in Jurisdictional Excellence”, where she was joined by Matt Aulds, vice-president, Finance and Legal at Series A start-up Sensible Weather; Andrew Weisman, managing director and global head of Risk and Insurance Management at Morgan Stanley; and Shivani Seth, business podcaster at RG Navigate and a non-executive director at the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation.

The panel was moderated by Grainne Richmond, executive vice-president, head of captives, Aon, and president of the Bermuda Captive Network, organisers of the conference.

Responding to Ms Lawson, Ms Richmond said: “You’re not the only stakeholder that has mentioned that to us. Bermuda goes through these peaks and troughs of getting out there marketing, getting the message out, and then we come back home and we applaud ourselves, and then it goes quiet again.”

She said discussions are taking place among the BCN, government and other industry organisations about getting back out on the road.

“It’s great having this conversation here, but how many ears are we missing by not being out on those road shows?”

In closing remarks, Ms Lawson said she hoped that Bermuda will remain the top choice moving forward, but said other jurisdictions are aggressively going after the technology segment not only in the United States but also in Europe.

“We are seeing more and more and more captives getting formed in the Caymans as a result. So I just want to sort of say that it’s a bit of a warning shot because obviously if they’re coming to us and we’re counselling them and you know if they have really long-term plans and they’re thinking about exit strategy, Bermuda’s still going to be the jurisdiction of choice.

“But the voices out there are loud and I’m really hoping that Bermuda can continue to get that message out to the international community because I think there’s real value here and hopefully we'll see some of that in the future.”