Captive insurance companies need to lobby key regulators against a move to treat risk retention groups like traditional insurers, Washington, D.C. Insurance Commissioner Thomas Hampton said today.

When it comes to paying attention to this question, Mr. Hampton said he and the D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking are "the only people out there."

The District is one of six jurisdictions that allow RRGs to be licensed as captives, he noted, but he is the only commissioner advocating RRG licensing of captives as national policy within the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Speaking at an event organized by the Captive Insurance Council of the District of Columbia, Mr. Hampton said commissioners from some states that license captives have not paid enough attention to the regulation question.

While some staff members of those other departments have been part of NAIC discussions, their bosses have not, he reported, and "it's important that not just staff people but commissioners" speak on the issue.

The NAIC's examination of new regulations for captives are a response to concerns raised by the Government Accountability Office, which said in a recent report that RRGs play a small but important role in maintaining coverage affordability and availability, but also have an increased potential for solvency problems.

Mr. Hampton said the DISB does not support adopting tougher Part A laws and regulation standards for RRGs licensed as captive insurance companies, which would effectively subject them to the same regulatory requirements as traditional insurers.

Additionally, he said the solvency problems faced by some RRGs are contributed to by their being regulated as traditional insurers.

"The recent RRGs that have been declared insolvent were not regulated under the captive regulatory scheme but the regulatory process for traditional insurance companies," he said.

Mr. Hampton commented, "Changing RRGs that are regulated as captives to the traditional company regulatory scheme does not address the financial solvency concerns that contribute to those insolvencies."

However, he said the work groups established by the NAIC appear to be working toward that end and are being led by commissioners from states that "don't have captives, don't have RRGs licensed as captives, and think that the whole process is bad."

Much of the work toward establishing Part A standards for captives, Mr. Hampton said, will likely be set at a financial summit being held by the NAIC in February in advance of the group's national meeting a month later.

Mr. Hampton said it was especially important for captive insurance companies and RRGs to make their opinions known at this meeting, where he expects much of the decisions on captive and RRG issues will actually be made in an environment that will not garner as much attention as the national meeting.

"It seems to me a lot of things are being done off-line," he said. By March, he added, "the conclusions are already there, and it's just a process of getting the process started."

Captive insurance issues are especially important for the District, which licensed its first captive in 2001 and has added 58 more since that time.

Special Reports /

Captives Need To Speak Up, Says Hampton

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