With Governor Nixon’s signature on May 16, 2013, the state of Missouri has adopted legislation modifying its captive insurance law.  The legislation, Senate Bill 287, will allow the formation of sponsored captive insurance companies, effective August 28, 2013.  The bill also provides for more efficient procedures for captive insurance company organization, merger, or assumption of business, including lowering the minimum capital and surplus requirement for an association captive to $500,000.

The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Scott Rupp (R-Wentzville) stated “Establishing sponsored captive insurance companies in Missouri creates a new business market, stimulating competition and economic growth for our state”.

A sponsored captive insurance company is a captive insurance company that insures the risks only of its participants through protected cells whose assets and liabilities are segregated from each other and from the sponsored captive insurance company’s general account.  The minimum capital and surplus of a sponsored captive insurance company is supplied by the company’s sponsor, not its participants.

The segregation of accounts through protected cells coupled with capital and surplus supplied by a common sponsor often makes sponsored captive insurance companies attractive to midsize businesses.  These businesses typically have sufficient funds and risk-financing needs to justify a formal self-insurance arrangement. However, they do  not have enough funds or risk-financing needs to justify capitalizing their own single-owner pure captive nor enough appetite for the full pooling of risks within a typical group captive.