EIA Captive - Excess Insurance Organization

About

On July 1, 2016, the CSAC Excess Insurance Authority (EIA) launched a captive insurance company, Excess Insurance Organization, Inc. (EIO). The formation was over a year in the making, having been the discussion at strategic planning, committee, and Board meetings over the past several years. EIO is a pure captive, meaning it is 100% owned by the EIA and will only take on the risk of its parent organization. The Captive will insure coverage program specific corridor risks; conceptually, a 100% transfer of risk at certain layers, much as the coverage program would cede this risk to a reinsurer. The transfer of risk offers short term gains to the ceding program, and long term gains to the EIA and its members as a whole.

Due to the EIA’s financial strength, total assets of approximately $650M, including $150M in net position, we are able to leverage economies of scale not commonly available to joint powers authorities. The Captive will be domiciled in Utah, and the governing board is made up of current EIA Board, Committee, and staff members along with EIA General Counsel and Utah Counsel. Existing EIA staff will provide in-house management of the captive including accounting, payment of expenses, and interface with regulators.

Goals

The EIO has been established to provide both short and long term objectives for the EIA including:

A complete risk transfer of corridor risk from various coverage programs to the captive;
An enhanced investment program governed by its own board and investment policies with the goal of additional investment income; and
A superior risk transfer mechanism when multiple programs’ risks are comingled.

Governance

The board is made up of current EIA Board, Committee, and staff members along with EIA General Counsel and Utah Counsel, and they are:

Michael Fleming, President & CEO (EIA CEO seat)
Scott Schimke, Vice President (from the EIA membership, Scott is the former President of the EIA Board and Chair of both the Executive and Underwriting Committees)
Darrel Pyle, Treasurer (from the EIA Public Entity membership, Darrel is Chair of the Finance Committee)
Lorin Barker, Secretary (from Kirton McConkie, Lorin is our Utah Legal Counsel and will fulfill the role of Utah Resident)
Lance Sposito (from the EIA membership, Lance is a former President of the EIA Board, serves on the Executive and Medical Malpractice Committees, and is Chair of the Property and General Liability 2 Committees).
Steve Underwood (formerly on the Executive and Finance Committees, and Risk Management professional, Steve is EIA’s General Counsel)
Gina Dean (seated in the EIA COO position)

Transparency

EIO will be run much in the same manner as the EIA. Although captive insurance companies are not subject to regulations such as the Brown Act, it is important to the members of the EIA to have full knowledge of the happenings and activities of the EIO, and as such, staff will provide full disclosure to its members and the public. Members can view the EIA's website or the Captive's website at any time to find out more information related to the Captive.