The client, their challenge
Our client was a U.S. based boutique firm operating as captive manager across various domiciles, namely North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Bermuda and Cayman Islands. The firm services 25 captives, with a growing book of business and specialises in the design, structuring, implementation and management of captive insurance and other alternatives risk financing programs.
The captive manager was struggling to recruit additional resources locally to cater for new business growth.
Our solution
IQ-EQ’s Professional Services Outsourcing (PSO) unit proposed to assist with the additional work by structuring the assignment as a three-month pilot in order for the captive manager to assess PSO’s deliverables.
At the end of the short pilot, the captive manager decided to engage IQ-EQ, which started with half of a Full Time Employee (FTE). Since then, the mandate has grown to five FTEs on a dedicated basis, with the requisite qualifications and experience in the captive insurance sector. The PSO team ensures sufficient overlap with the U.S. time zone and assists with the day-to-day operations of the captive manager as an extension of its local team that allows the captive manager to focus on growing its business.
IQ-EQ was able to extend our services beyond the accounting function. In addition to assisting with bookkeeping and preparation of financial statements, the PSO team also performs the following tasks:
- Regulatory filing assistance
- Full audit pack compilation and coordination of client company audits
- Liaising with actuary for the loss report and opinion
- Assisting in preparing materials for Board meetings
- Assisting on drafting minutes, resolutions, policies and premium invoices
- Liaising with the pool for any captive participating in the reinsurance pooling facility
- Maintaining loss runs and preparation of loss payment requests
- Bespoke and ad hoc tasks
Results
By utilising PSO’s extension model, the captive manager gets access to qualified and professional resources without having to invest in recruitment, training, and people and payroll management.
Another benefit is that the business was able to service clients in a ‘business as usual’ manner during the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging remote working environments that were setup for their PSO team whilst recalibrating their BCP plans and operations.
