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South Carolina licenses 15 new captives, removes nine in 2017

Posted On: Jan. 24, 2018 1:33 PM CST

South Carolina licenses 15 new captives, removes nine in 2017

South Carolina licensed 15 new captives in 2017, but removed nine captives from its registry as state regulators warned that market conditions will dampen new captive formations.

The removals were related to parent company mergers or voluntary dissolutions due to prevailing soft casualty market conditions, the captive division of the South Carolina Department of Insurance said in a statement Monday.

“All things considered, 2017 was a good year for new captive formation in South Carolina,” Jay Branum, the department’s captive director, said in the statement. “Our new versus dissolved numbers compare quite favorably with the numbers reported so far by other domiciles. We’re still posting net gains to our portfolio as opposed to the net losses some other domiciles are experiencing.”

“It is no longer realistic for us to expect to license 20-30 new captives per year given the external forces at play these days – i.e., the sustained soft market, the saturation of the large corporate sector and the large number of U.S.-based domiciles available to prospective captive owners,” Jeff Kehler, the department’s captive administrator, said in the statement.