CD&P Wants to Lure Canadian Captives
Bermuda law firm Conyers, Dill & Pearman has embarked on a sustained new effort to make Bermuda the preferred off-shore domicile for Canadian captive insurance companies, challenging Barbados’ traditional dominance in the lucrative market.
CD&P partner Charles Collis said as a result of a recent Bermuda tax information exchange agreement with Canada, the island now enjoys an equal footing with Barbados from a tax standpoint. Until now Barbados has been the preferred off-shore jurisdiction for Canadian companies.
“However, Bermuda is the world’s largest captive domicile and we believe it has the best infrastructure and services for captives, and so we see that now with this tax information agreement having been signed it is a perfect opportunity to come and meet Canadian captive insurance owners and potential captive insurance owners and encourage them to use Bermuda as their domicile for their captive insurance companies,” Mr Collis said in an interview.
“We encourage Canadians to establish their captives in Bermuda; it’s business for the captive service providers and enhances the Bermuda insurance market just that much more. But I also believe there are real opportunities and benefits for Canadians to have their captives in Bermuda. The infrastructure and the service in Bermuda is second-to-none. There are approximately 1300 insurance companies in Bermuda; 900 of which are captive insurance companies. The other 400 are commercial insurance companies. So with 900 captive insurance companies in Bermuda there are very experienced captive managers, older firms, attorneys and the other captive service providers.”
The owner of the Bermuda captive also has benefit of being in the jurisdiction where there is truly a one-stop-shop, said Mr. Collis. Explaining the competitive benefits to operating out of Bermuda, he said with so many third party commercial writers here a Canadian captive owner can come to Bermuda to hold his captive meetings with his manager and then go straight to his insurance company or his re-insurer across the road.
“Insurance is a very big piece of our Bermuda practice,” he said. “As I mentioned there are 1300 insurance companies in Bermuda so it keeps our insurance group very busy. Those insurance companies in total write in excess of 100 Billion dollars of premiums and have approximately 500 Billion dollars in total assets. Such a big market makes Bermuda competitive with any insurance or re-insurance market around the world.”
