Arizona and Utah join forces

05/11/2009

The Arizona Captive Insurance Association (AzCIA) and the Utah Captive Insurance Association (UCIA) are to co-sponsor the first US regional captive conference, the Western Region Captive Insurance Conference (WRCIC), on 5-8 April 2010.

According to Lee Filener, vice-president of Marsh USA and an AzCIA board member, the event is intended to lessen delegate costs and ease the demand on service providers and captive owners to attend numerous conferences.

“When you add up the sponsorship fee, attendee cost, accommodation and the time taken off in attending multiple conferences every year, it is likely to cost a service provider up to $20,000-$30,000,” said Filener.

“By combining it into one event for the Western US, it reduces the cost for everybody and you can provide a much more dynamic conference.”

By pooling the resources of smaller domiciles, the organisers hope to level the playing field with large domicile-specific conferences, such as Vermont’s, which have more spending power to attract delegates.

“The economy has been going through a bad spell and conference numbers are declining a bit,” said Filener. “We are trying to provide a Western option that is more attractive to captive owners.”

However, the conference organisers have been frustrated by the lack of participation from other domiciles serving the western market. Nevada, Montana, Colorado and Hawaii all declined to get involved with the WRCIC.

“Nevada has only just finished working on their October conference but expressed its interest in 2011 involvement. I cannot speak on behalf of the other domiciles,” said Filener.

When pressed on the question of whether Arizona and Utah are expected to gain an advantage over the non-participating domiciles, Filener said: “The intention is not to put anyone at a disadvantage but simply to strengthen the industry.”

Robert Vogel, co-owner of Pro Group Captive Management and secretary of the Nevada Captive Insurance Association, said there were concerns from some non-participating domiciles about sharing their member list information and their proceeds.

“One of the main reasons for a conference is its fundraising function,” he said. “And from their perspective it elevates smaller domiciles to a stature to which they don’t belong.”