South Carolina, 100 Captives And Counting

NU Online News Service, Oct. 12, 4:07 p.m.EDT?The South Carolina captive insurance industryannounced the licensing of its 100^th captive insurancecompany during the last week of September.[@@]

License 100 was issued to Carolina Insurance Company ofColumbia, a captive insurance subsidiary of Defender Services.

Defender Services is a South Carolina-based company providingjanitorial, housekeeping and security services for a wide array ofindustrial entities, according to the South Carolina Department ofInsurance.

Defender has more than 3,000 employees, operates in 21 states,and has many Fortune 500 companies as clients, the department said.Defender's captive subsidiary will provide the company withinsurance for workers' compensation and general liability.

"Our success on the captive insurance front shows exactly whatwe can do in this state if we make something a priority from aneconomic development standpoint," South Carolina Governor MarkSanford said in a statement. "This is a segment of the economywhere we're now tremendously competitive as a state.

He noted that the key for his administration moving forward willbe "expanding that competitive advantage throughout our state'seconomy, particularly with respect to the thousands of smallbusinesses out there that form the backbone of job creation here inSouth Carolina."

Hollis Cone, chief executive officer of Defender, said thecaptive route was chosen because "it gave the flexibility andcontrol we needed. It also allowed us to fully reap the benefits ofthe priority our company places on safety and loss prevention."

He added that Defender chose South Carolina because ofgeographic advantages. "South Carolina has the regulatory attitudeand professional skills infrastructure that made this venture runflawlessly," he said.

Starting with two captive insurers in 2000, the state added 9 in2001, 17 in 2002, 39 in 2003 and 33, so far, in 2004, thedepartment said.