Tennessee licenses first captive insurer under revised law

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Tennessee has licensed its first new captive insurance company since the state revised its captive law this year.

Julie McPeak, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, signed the license Thursday for Park View Insurance Co., a pure captive formed by Nashville, Tenn.-based hospital and health system operator HCA Inc.

Though Tennessee originally enacted a captive law in 1978, state legislators unanimously passed a major rewrite of the law in May. The revisions updated the existing captive law and permitted the formation of protected cell captives, branch captives and special-purpose financial captives in Tennessee.

The revised law also allows captives to provide workers compensation insurance to employers and affiliates that otherwise qualify with the state as self-insureds, and to write excess or stop-loss workers compensation coverage for employers not qualifying as self-insureds.

After reaching a peak of 16 captives in 1990, the Tennessee domicile gradually withered until just four captives remained at the end of 2010. Updating the state’s captive insurance law and revitalizing the captive domicile was part of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s legislative package this spring.