Honolulu, Hawaii, October 24, 2014 – Despite intrepid weather conditions just a day prior to the start of the annual Hawaii Captive Insurance Council’s (HCIC) Education Forum, the event went off without a hitch and the sun returned to the sky. Earlier this week, the HCIC hosted its annual Education Forum at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa with more than 220 participants from around the world.
Sanford Saito, Deputy Commissioner and Captive Insurance Administrator at Hawaii Insurance Division adds “Mahalo to all of the attendees who braved the threat of Hurricane Ana to attend the forum. HCIC organizers did a great job of selecting experienced speakers who presented timely, relevant information to attendees considering forming captives and captive owners evaluating ways to add value to their entities. We look forward to the opportunity to help our owners achieve even greater success with their captive programs.”
More than 30% of the participants at the Forum were captive owners, including several who were sponsors of the event and had informational booths within the exhibit hall. “The HCIC has done an incredible job engaging its captive owner members, this level of engagement by captive owners is unmatched in our industry” says Jason Palmer, the Forum Chairperson.
For the first time ever the HCIC conference keynote luncheon speaker was a Hawaii domicile captive owner; Steve Schott had baseball fans and strictly business minds alike glued to their seats as he described his experiences owning the Money ball Oakland A’s, their record breaking 20 game winning streak, and his satisfaction as a captive owner on deciding more than a decade ago to domicile his firm’s captive in Hawaii.
At this year’s Forum, HCIC presented its inaugural Award of Excellence to Mr. Gordon Nishiki, a retiree from the State of Hawaii Insurance Division and long-time HCIC volunteer. HCIC also recognized Safeway, a Hawaii captive owner, by presenting them with an Award of Excellence to honor their company’s many contributions to the Hawaii captive industry.
Another first at this year’s Forum was the awarding of scholarships to attend the event. HCIC welcomed Ms. Katherine LaMantia of BevCap Management and Ms. Allison Repke of Willis Global Captive Practice as this year’s scholarship recipients.
Due to the flawless execution of this year’s conference, captive owners and industry professionals are already making plans to attend next year’s conference held on October 27th – 30th, 2015 at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa.
Captive insurance is a regulated form of self-insurance that has been around since the 1960’s, and has been a part of the Hawaii insurance industry since 1986, when Hawaii passed Article 19 of its insurance law. Captive insurance companies are formed by companies or groups of companies as a form of alternative insurance to better manage their own risk. Captives are typically used for corporate lines of insurance such as property, general liability, products liability, or professional liability.