Marsh overtakes Aon in captive numbers

Adam Saville 18/09/2009

Marsh Captive Solutions has finalised its takeover of independent captive manager International Advisory Services (IAS), putting its total number of captives managed ahead of those managed by Aon Global Insurance Managers (AGIM).

The takeover, announced Friday 18 September, will see IAS and its 190 managed captives (with a premium volume of US$7.5bn) fully incorporated into Marsh Captive Solutions (Bermuda) over the coming months.

According to the figures published in Captive Review’s Captive Manager Survey in May, the total number of captives under Marsh management now stands at 1,310, exceeding the 1,120 captives on AGIM’s books.

Michael Cormier, managing director and chief executive of Marsh’s Global Captive Solutions Practice said: “Getting bigger for the sake of getting bigger was not the purpose of doing this.

“The challenge for us is to make sure that the level of investment that we have in the space allows us to maintain the best technology platform and thought leadership within risk management.”

Founder and chief executive officer of IAS, David Ezekiel has been named chairman and managing director of Marsh Captive Solutions (Bermuda) and joins the leadership team of Marsh Global Captive Solutions Practice led globally by Cormier and Jill Husbands.

Ezekiel said: “It is a good move for both outfits. Marsh has got a worldwide reach that IAS does not presently have, allowing us to offer solutions to clients no matter where they are.

“IAS is particularly strong in the new company incubation area, so the combined unit will clearly be a leader on a global scale.”

However, the official announcement made on Thursday after a few weeks of talks, has not been without some initial doubts.

“Whenever you have a trusted advisor changing shape there are always some initial concerns, but our clients know what we do and that we are very service-oriented so they are waiting to see if we deliver,” said Ezekiel.

Although the removal of IAS’ independence may raise a degree of concern for some clients, Cornier believes that, on the whole, the response will be positive.

“As much as there is still an underlying trend for independent managers to stress the benefits of independence within the client management and operation process, really the lines are very blurred,” he said.

“We make sure that we have appropriate separations between our management business and broker business so that we preserve what is a very big part of our franchise.”