Arizona Licenses First Captive
By Caroline McDonald
NU Online News Service, Sept. 9, 11:57 a.m. EST?A spokesperson for Arizona's insurance department said new legislation related to captives may be in the works following issuance of the state's first captive insurer's license last month.
The license was issued to Triad Commercial Captive Insurance Company, owned by Grant Goodman. Triad will write commercial automobile, general liability and inland marine coverages for Rockland materials, located in Phoenix, and Stirling Bridge Cement, a Rockland affiliate, which was recently established in Drake, Ariz., according to the department. Mr. Goodman has a controlling interest in both companies.
"I am confident Triad Commercial will be the kind of safe, sound, high quality captive insurance program that will typify Arizona captives," said Charles R. Cohen, Arizona director of insurance.
Mr. Cohen said that the state's first captive was licensed following the July 1 effective date of the new captive law.
"The seriousness of the other inquiries we have had demonstrates that Arizona is well positioned to develop into a significant captive domicile," he said.
The Captive Insurers bill, HB 2116, enacted in 2001, was sponsored by Rep. Ted Carpenter, R-Maricopa, chairman of the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee.
"The captive insurance program, in my opinion, helps make Arizona an attractive insurance market," Mr. Carpenter said. "The added requirements built into the legislation will promote Arizona as a viable domicile for captive insurers."
Richard Marshall, appointed captive insurance administrator for the Phoenix-based Arizona Department of Insurance in February, said in April that he is working to improve the state's captive legislation by expanding protected cell agency captives and group captives?non-association.
A Department of Insurance spokesperson confirmed that the department is "contemplating a bill for the 2003 legislative session relative to captive laws."
Mr. Marshall said that interest in the domicile has been high because of the state's existing and proposed captive legislation, the hard market, and the state's location.
The domicile, he said, is drawing interest from the upper Midwest?Minnesota, Chicago and Detroit, specifically?and also the West Coast states as an alternative to Hawaii.
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