Martin Ellis, manager of Comerica Bank's Global and Captive Insurance Group, says that custody for captive insurers is simply the holding or safekeeping of a captive's financial assets in an account. It can be either onshore or offshore.

Some of the custodian's duties are (1) reporting—keeping track of investments, the CUSIP numbers, the ticker symbols, the cost and market value of the investments, the accrued income, and the gains and losses; (2) settling trades made by the investment managers; (3) collecting dividend and interest income on the investments; (4) handling proxy voting; (5) and Schedule D reporting—a detailed list of investments for regulatory purposes.

The custodian should have online reporting as well as download capabilities, and also the investment manager should be able to trade electronically in and out of the account.