Bermuda is the largest captive domicile in the world and now, two of the Island’s largest insurance industry organisations are teaming up to host a first of its kind symposium for professionals in the captive insurance market.The one-day Captive Education Summit, hosted by the Bermuda Insurance Management Association (BIMA) and the Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII), will bring captive professionals together on May 10 to discuss recent developments in regulation, audits, board governance and business trends and how the changes will influence Bermuda’s captives.The captive insurance business played a major role in the creation and development of Bermuda’s international insurance market and remains one of its best-known core activities. With more than 862 active captives in Bermuda, up from 845 a year ago, captives remain big business in Bermuda, which is why BIMA and the BII are collaborating on the new conference.“Both organisations feel there is so much captive insurance talent in Bermuda, it’s only proper that something of this magnitude be held in Bermuda,” said John Wight, president of the BII.“It’s a big industry in Bermuda and a big employer here. It doesn’t necessarily have the glory surrounding it that you have with the commercial insurance and reinsurance market which is, of course, so well known here,” said Lawrence Bird, president of BIMA.As heads of the BII and BIMA, both Mr Wight and Mr Bird agree the main objective is informing those in the captive sector about the regulatory changes on the horizon for Bermuda.“There has been a huge, huge amount of change in the last couple of years, all for the right reasons,” said Mr Bird. “But there has been a lot of misinformation out there and I think this is an opportunity to get representatives from the industry, from the service providers within captive management, together to maybe dispel any myths that might be out there and really lay on the line where we are with things right now.”“We have some very well-respected speakers and panellists,” Mr Wight added. “We have people such as Allan Cossar, chairman of the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), Jeremy Cox, CEO of the BMA and Mark Smith, chairman if the Insurance Advisory Committee. Auditing firms, PwC, KPMG and Deloitte will also have representation on a panel discussion about regulatory changes for captive audits, so it really is a terrific line-up.”The Education Summit, which organisers say is quickly filling up, is for both new and experienced captive professionals.“The first part of the programme is perhaps more for entry level and new people to the captive industry. We’ll give an overview of the captive market to show how the various representative bodies work together within Bermuda, the Insurance Advisory Committee, the Acts and Regulations Committee, Bermuda Captive Owners Association, BIMA, BII, the Bermuda Development Committee and the Bermuda Monetary Authority, how it all fits together,” Mr Bird said. “Then it’s into ‘How do you form a captive in Bermuda?’ ‘Why do you form a captive in Bermuda?’ All that kind of good stuff so people can understand what it’s all about and what’s going on in clients’ minds, what their objectives are and why they come here.”“Then as the day goes on, we’ll get more into the regulatory updates and that’s where more experienced professionals will be coming through to really get some clarity surrounding some of the changes that have taken place and are still ongoing,” Mr. Bird continued.Mr Bird and Mr. Wight said this is an especially important year to have this type of event.“With all the regulation related to equivalence, and what it means for Bermuda, I think a lot of parties would like further clarification on what this means for, in particular, the captive insurance market,” Mr Wight said.”I think having people such as Jeremy Cox speak to it is going to bring a lot of clarity to the issues at hand.”The regulatory side of the captive industry will be significantly represented at the summit with the BMA represented on a number of panels.While the main objective of the summit is providing clarity, organisers say it’s also about bringing experts in Bermuda together to ensure they are representing Bermuda in the best way possible.“It’s not often there’s a forum that brings together of regulators, actuaries, auditors, investment managers, insurance managers,” Mr. Wight said. “So this will be one such forum to do just that.”“Bermuda is the largest captive domicile globally — that’s going to stay the same for quite sometime, but there are, naturally, threats out there,” Mr Bird said. “Because we have a successful model, inevitably, they’re going to copy that and run with it. But at the same time Bermuda as a captive industry has to keep reinventing itself. And we want to try and have an opportunity to bring the industry together and convey that message.”“There is so much insurance talent in Bermuda that we’d like to be holding more conferences here, rather than sending people overseas for conferences,” Mr Wight added. “We are the world leader in captives, so it’s only right that we would be holding our own conference here rather than having people attend similar conferences elsewhere.”While this year’s event is targeted at Bermuda professionals, they say if it’s successful, they will consider inviting people from overseas in the future.The Captive Education Summit is on May 10 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel. To register, visit www.bii.com.