Dear Captive Community,

It was a pleasure to see so many of you at the Western Region Captive Insurance Conference.  Thank you to all who took the opportunity to share your ideas with me some of which were that I share some of the following information with you.

I am pleased to announce the following staff changes at the Arizona Department of Insurance Captive Division.  Toi Ramey has just joined us as a Financial Analyst.  Toi has a Finance Degree from Arizona State University and experience in the financial services industry.  Many of you had the pleasure to meet Ann-Marie Branicz at the Western Region Captive Insurance Conference.  Ann-Marie joined us as a Financial Analyst in July.  She also has a Finance Degree from Arizona State University and experience in the financial services industry.  We currently have a position open for a part-time life actuary.  If you know an actuary who is interested, the posting may be reviewed at https://secure.azstatejobs.gov/pljb/azgovjobs/mainjb/applicant/index.jsp Search for jobs and enter the keyword ADOI.

We recently posted an updated Reference Guide for Non Risk Retention Group Captives Only to our website.  There are no significant changes in our operations or procedures with respect to Non Risk Retention Group Captives (Pure Captives).  The significant change to the Reference Guide is that we removed information relevant to the RRGs.  We had published the Reference Guide for Risk Retention Group Captives Only effective December 2010 due to the significant changes in accreditation standards with respect to RRGs.  You may access either Reference Guide at the following link:  http://www.id.state.az.us/captives/captives-ref.html  Important information to review includes the Appendices for the Actuarial Opinion and Actuarial Opinion Summary Standards, Annual Financial Reporting Model Regulation, and Requirements for Preparation of the Management Discussion and Analysis Report.  We still receive Actuarial Opinions without Exhibits A or B and other key information, Audits without the Qualifications Letter and MD&As without discussion and analysis.

A Facts and Statistics document updated as of September 30, 2011 is also available on our website at the following link:  http://www.id.state.az.us/captives/captives-facts.html  The first page includes an overview of the regulatory structure in Arizona.  The remaining pages provide an overview of the population of companies we regulate.  You may be aware that ARS §20-1098.23 allows us to only release the name of the captive insurer, the date licensed, the type of captive insurer, the industry of the owners or members and the license status.  Please note there is a typo on the bottom of page 2.  The formula must not be working so I would like to make the observation that we have 98 captives maintaining an active license in the State of Arizona.  I will get that fixed.  A key statistic not reported in this document is that our written premium volume is approximately $2.5 Billion.  I will make a note to add more key statistics after the upcoming year end data is available.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge that I would be happy to accommodate informational meetings with your prospective applicants before they move on to the pre-application procedures which are outlined in either Reference Guides.  We may or may not require the pre-application meeting described in the Reference Guide depending on our understanding of the business plan.  If we have a good understanding of the business plan but your client still requires a pre-application meeting, we would be happy to accommodate them.

It was an unintentional oversight if I have omitted a colleague.  Please share this message with all who may be interested and let me know if my distribution is outdated.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

I look forward to seeing you at the Arizona Captive Society breakfast on October 19, 2011.

Ditat Deus.

Stephanie

Stephanie Lefkowski, CPCU
Chief Analyst – Captive Division
Arizona Department of Insurance
602-364-3990
SLefkowski@AZInsurance.gov