Social media may provide an ideal avenue for risk managers and others in the industry to ask questions, collectively solve problems and tap experts for advice around the complicated issue of captives.
Chris Kramer formed "The Captive Insurance and Risk Retention Network" in 2008 on LinkedIn, the popular professional-networking site. He did so, he says, "based upon my perception that getting access to the people and resources required to study or form a captive or RRG was limited."
Kramer, director of marketing/captives with ULLICO Casualty Group Inc., notes sizable growth in new members to his discussion site since January, with an average of 25 new members each week in 2011.
The site now has 2,304 members—a figure he expects to double in the next 12 months.
The rapid growth, he says, is attributable to society's "growing acceptance of social networking on a business or professional level."
Kramer adds, "Personally, I like to think that the increasing use of alternative risk has become so universally acceptable that more people want to access the experts and resources the group offers."
Jay Adkisson, founder of another LinkedIn group, "Adkisson on Captive Insurance and Alternative Risk Management" has seen his forum grow to 461 members since being founded in December 2010.
Adkisson, partner with Riser Adkisson LLP and chairman of the American Bar Association Committee on Captive Insurance, says posting links to good, current content is key to the success of any business forum.
As an example, he explains that his website (captiveinsurancecompanies.com) contains high-quality source materials, and he uses social media to refer people to those in-depth resources.
Adkisson, author of "Adkisson's Captive Insurance Companies," finds that a segment of those who come to the site are perspective captive owners. They are trying to get a sense of "who's who in the industry, who's credible and who's not, who has good information; and they want to get an idea on pricing," he says.
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