How do you start a captive insurance company in Utah?
It starts with a captive manager and ends with a certificate of public good
Travis Wegkamp puts the first step outside the department. Before anything is filed, a captive manager looks at the business, its risk profile, and where a captive could cover gaps or better serve coverage the business already buys. The manager builds the feasibility study and the business plan, those go into Utah's online licensing application with the supporting documents, and the department reviews the coverage lines against the code before issuing the certificate of public good that lets the company be formed.
Wegkamp's answer to where you start is that you do not start with the regulator. You start with a captive manager, and the department publishes a list of the managers approved to operate in Utah so that someone with no idea where to begin can contact a few and choose.
The manager does the work that decides whether there is a captive worth forming at all. They examine the entity and its risk profile, look for gaps a captive could cover or coverage that could be better served by one, and run the feasibility study that sets the lines, the limits and the premium.
Key takeaways
Wegkamp says the process begins with a captive manager, not the department, and Utah publishes the list of managers approved to work with captives licensed there.
The filing bundles a business plan and feasibility study with biographical affidavits, parent and beneficial owner financials, and the corporate formation documents.
The certificate of public good comes before the company legally exists, and Wegkamp says the timeline after it is set by how fast the applicant executes.
That work becomes a business plan, and the business plan is what gets filed. Utah's licensing application is online and, as Wegkamp points out, anyone can open it and read what it asks for before committing to anything. It wants the business plan and feasibility study, biographical affidavits for the owners, directors and officers, financial information for the parent and the beneficial owners, and the corporate legal documents including articles of incorporation and bylaws.
The department's review is about permissibility. Wegkamp describes checking the submission and the lines of coverage to confirm everything is allowable under Utah's captive code.
From the conversation
Travis Wegkamp
Director, Captive Insurance Division, Utah Insurance Department
“The real start is to get involved with what we call the captive manager.”
This answer begins at 6:23 of the full conversation. Watch or listen to the whole thing.
Citations
Sources
- Captive, Utah Insurance Departmenthttps://insurance.utah.gov/captive
The views expressed are those of the featured guest, drawn from a recorded conversation, and reflect their own professional experience. Nothing on this page is insurance, tax, legal, or investment advice. Consult your own advisors about your specific situation.
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