BDA to lead captive insurance delegation to South America

The Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA) is to lead an industry delegation to Santiago, Chile and Lima, Peru this week to host executive forums on the value of Bermuda-based captive insurance.

The delegation will be meeting with prospects and service providers who want to learn more about Bermuda’s captive insurance solution and ways to access the island’s powerful re/insurance market. The forums are aimed at financial executives, risk managers and family-office advisers, and will be held on Tuesday, March 28 at the Ritz-Carlton Santiago and Thursday, March 30 at the Westin Lima Hotel & Convention Center.

"Bermuda has seen encouraging interest from the Latin American market, with the establishment of three new Latin captive insurers out of Chile, Colombia and Mexico in 2016," said Jereme Ramsay, BDA business development manager for the risk sector. "Our delegation will continue to educate industry partners in the region and look to connect business with our local stakeholders. This collaboration between Bermuda’s public/private sector significantly enhances opportunities for new business leads for our captive insurance market."

The Bermuda part of the delegation includes: Janita Burke of Estera Services; Andres Carmona of Marsh; Alejandra Castano of JLT Insurance Management; Daniel Message of EY; and Giulianna Molero Solari of PwC. In addition, the delegation features regional partners Andres Alcalde and Juan Pablo Cuartas of Marsh; consultant Eduardo Escaffi; Rodrigo Hernandez of PwC; Jose Ignacio Lathrop and Juan Felipe Londoño of JLT; Khaled Luyo of KPMG; and Alvaro Ortiz of Charles Taylor.

"Chile and Peru are home to many large and medium-sized corporations with sophisticated risk managers and an excellent understanding of their insurance risk," said Janita Burke, client director for Estera. "These entities can benefit from establishing and operating a Bermuda captive—a risk-management tool that has been highly beneficial to their counterpart corporations in the United States for decades. Along with my fellow industry colleagues, I hope to convey the virtues of Bermuda and demonstrate how a Bermuda-based captive could be profitable to their business."

Scheduled to run 9–11:30 am both days, the forums will feature two sessions: the first, 'Captive Solutions & Strategies', explains what a captive insurer is, a captive’s structure, key reasons to set up a captive, along with common risks insured, citing several case studies. A second session focuses on regulatory, tax and legal frameworks and includes two case studies.