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Southwest attracts wide variety of captives

Posted On: Mar. 11, 2007 12:00 AM CST

Nevada, Arizona and Utah have attracted mainly single-parent captives, but Nevada also has 24 active risk retention groups, compared with 18 in Arizona and one in Utah, according to regulators and state captive insurance associations.

The domiciles have attracted a wide variety of captive owners, including manufacturers, building contractors, real estate developers, automobile dealers, physicians, lawyers, nursing homes and, in Nevada, casinos.

Headquarters for Nevada's captive owners dot the U.S. map from New York to San Francisco. Arizona has attracted not only captive owners from across the country but also three or four owners whose captives previously were licensed in other U.S. states and about eight that had been chartered in offshore domiciles. Many of Utah's captive sponsors are local businesses.

The risks covered in the captives vary just as widely: general liability; property; workers compensation; longshoremen and harbor workers; professional liability, including medical malpractice liability; construction defects; directors and officers liability; cargo; and earthquake. In Utah, however, workers comp only can be reinsured through a captive and not written directly.