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R+L Carriers receives final approval to fund benefit risks through captive

Posted On: Jan. 19, 2012 12:00 AM CST

WASHINGTON—The Labor Department has given final approval to a freight carrier’s plan to fund employee benefit risks through a captive insurer.

Under the arrangement, Wilmington, Ohio-based R+L Carriers Shared Services L.L.C. will use Royal Assurance Inc., a captive licensed in Arizona, to reinsure accidental death and dismemberment benefits, life, and long-term and short-term disability risks that are insured by a unit of Unum Group.

Royal Assurance is owned by members of the family that founded the freight carrier, which has about 9,000 employees.

R+L’s application was filed by George O’Donnell, senior vp with Aon Hewitt in Somerset, N.J.

The Labor Department approval—known as a final exemption and published in Thursday’s Federal Register—followed its final authorization earlier this week of a Microsoft Corp. proposal to expand benefit risks funded through the Vermont branch of its Bermuda-based captive insurer.