Delaware Adds 48 New Captives

East News • Insurance Journal • February 3, 2011

Delaware added 48 new captive insurers last year, doubling the state’s total to 96 captives, according to state regulators.

Steve Kinion, director of the state’s Captive Bureau, said the growth stemmed from a number of re-domestications from off-shore nations to Delaware, as well as the fact that only in Delaware can an entity form a series entity captive, which utilizes Delaware’s limited liability company or statutory trust acts to streamline corporate governance and other overhead costs.

Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart said “one of the attributes of domiciling in Delaware is that a captive insurer can take advantage of Delaware’s premier entity laws. No other jurisdiction integrates corporate and captive like the Delaware, the First and Global State.”

The growth generated a 28 percent increase in premium taxes from 2009 to 2010, regulators said.