Michael Corbett, Tennessee's Top Captive Regulator, Moves into Banking

Michael Corbett, the longtime top captive insurance regulator at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI), will leave March 6 to join Pinnacle Bank in Nashville as a senior vice president with a focus on captive insurance company investments.

Mr. Corbett joined the TDCI as the director of captive insurance in 2011 and presided over tremendous growth of Tennessee as a captive insurance domicile.

In 2011, Tennessee had just two captive insurance companies. In February, the state licensed its 200th captive insurer. That sharp increase in captive formations followed changes Tennessee lawmakers made, starting in 2011, to the state's captive statute intended to make Tennessee a more attractive domicile. Major corporations that have set up captive insurance companies in Tennessee include Hospital Corporation of America, International Paper Co., Nissan Motors, and Pinnacle Bank.

Tennessee captive executives said Mr. Corbett, who since the end of last year was the TDCI's director of business development, deserves credit for the state's huge captive growth.

"Tennessee captives would certainly not be where they are today without his hard work," Kevin Doherty, president of the Tennessee Captive Insurance Association in Nashville, said in a statement.

The outgoing regulator said the TDCI's captive insurance division will remain in strong hands. "I leave the captive section with a deep and broad bench of very talented captive insurance company analysts," he said. This includes Jennifer Stalvey, who recently succeeded Mr. Corbett as the TDCI's captive insurance director.

At the end of 2019, Tennessee had—excluding inactive and cell captives—140 captive insurance companies, up from 117 in 2015. Since then, Tennessee has licensed four captive insurers, with six captives now in the approval process.