Actuarial and risk consulting firm Nichol & Co has announced the opening of its subsidiary Nassau Captive Management Services Ltd (“Nassau Captives”) to expand on services offered to international (and local) clients.
Nassau Captives provides a variety of services to firms that require a captive insurance solution to meet their risk management needs. A captive insurer is an insurance company established to insure the risks of its owners – thereby meeting their specific risk requirements.
There are a number of reasons why a company may find a captive solution attractive, including: (a) high or volatile premium rates in the traditional markets; (b) inability to obtain cover in the traditional market for a variety of reasons; (c) the need to design policy terms that better meet its requirements; (d) ability to retain more profits or improved cashflow due to having a better grasp on its true risk financing costs; (e) possible tax advantages – provided the core risk management needs are met.
Rayon Brown, a Consulting Actuary with Nichol & Co and a Director of Nassau Captives, commented that his company found it necessary to establish this new subsidiary to be able to offer a full solution for clients with complicated risk financing requirements.
For example, the firm gets frequent requests from clients in the investment and capital markets industry for solutions to a variety of risk exposures, including political and environmental risks.
Rayon also said he feels more firms like Nassau Captives are needed in the local market because he believes one of the problems holding the industry back is the lack of the “Silicon Valley” effect.
He refers to a destination like Bermuda as a risk management “Silicon Valley” because they have so many risks specialists there that clients just believe they will find a full solution to their problems just by landing in Bermuda: “There is always some guy just down the road who can help with a problem that your manager is not an expert in.”
Rayon said the recent introduction of the Commercial Enterprises Act is a step in the right direction – if it helps attract talent to the domicile in the short term. - more -
However, he believes that local private sector participation is paramount in ensuring long term growth in the sector. “Clients need to know that there is a component of talent that remains here for the long haul.”
Rayon Brown is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and a Certified Enterprise Risk Actuary. He has 20 years’ experience in the insurance industry, of which several years were spent working in the United Kingdom.
About Nichol & Co
Nichol & Co is a Bahamian based actuarial consultancy with an international outlook. It is positioned to assist in the inevitable growth of The Bahamas’ financial services industry due to the structural changes in the sector over the past few years; and the adoption of more sophisticated approaches to manging risks used by many international firms.
