Captives at the Core: The Foundation of a Risk Financing Strategy

This marks the 10th year that we have published an in-depth captive report. Based on data from over 1,100 captives managed by Marsh, this year’s report focuses on understanding how captives are being used depending on geography, risk issue, and/or industry, surfacing opportunities that may exist for greater utilization.

Among the key findings from the report:

• Since 2006, there has been a 40% increase in the number of captives formed globally.
• In the face of growing global economic and political uncertainty, and disruption from technology innovation, companies view captives as being at the core of innovative risk management strategies.
• Funding corporate retained risk is a key value driver of captive formation, providing the flexibility to adjust risk retention strategies in response to market cycles or changes in exposures.
• In the past, most captives were formed by parent companies from North America and Europe but, over the past three years, there has been increased interest from emerging geographies.
• There has been, in recent years, an expansion of captive use in industries other than the traditional financial services, health care, and manufacturing sectors – although they continued to dominate the captive arena in 2016.
• Parent companies concerned about economic volatility, rule of law, and government instability are using their captives as a lever to address complex coverages related to geopolitical risk.

The report also analyzes the growth of captives throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, discusses tax and regulatory changes affecting captives, and provides recommendations for current and prospective captive owners.

To view the full report, please download the PDF.