At a certain size, you stop joining insurance companies and start owning one.
A group captive means shared ownership with other well-run businesses. As premium grows, the question changes. If your own operation generates enough predictable premium, sharing may no longer be necessary.
What is a single-parent captive?
A single-parent captive, sometimes called a pure captive, is a licensed insurance company owned by one business to insure that business’s own risk. The underwriting profit and investment income that would have gone to a commercial carrier stay inside your structure. In exchange, you capitalize the company, satisfy its regulator, and stand behind its losses. This is a structure for businesses with meaningfully larger premium than a group captive requires, a strong balance sheet, and a finance function sophisticated enough to run it.
What is a protected cell captive?
A protected cell company rents you the infrastructure of a captive without requiring you to build one. Your cell holds its own assets and its own results, legally walled off from every other cell in the structure. It is the bridge option: more control and more ownership than a group captive, less capital and less commitment than forming your own company.
Why does Iowa matter here?
Since 2023, Iowa has licensed captive insurance companies and has been actively building itself into a legitimate captive domicile. An Iowa business that wants its insurance company regulated in its home state now has that option, without defaulting to Vermont or an offshore domicile. For owners who like their regulator, their bank, and their insurance company in the same time zone, that matters.
How do these conversations start?
Not with a quote. These are capital allocation decisions, and they start the way capital decisions should: with your loss data, your balance sheet, and a feasibility conversation. We evaluate fit first inside a Business Risk Diagnostic™, and when a structure like this makes sense, we work alongside specialist captive managers with proven track records. If the numbers say you are not there yet, we will tell you that too, and we will tell you what the path looks like.