Shaping the Future of Captives: Dan Towle Previews the 2025 CICA International Conference

Editor's Note: As the captive insurance industry prepares for the 2025 CICA International Conference, taking place March 9–11 in Tucson, Arizona, we connect with Dan Towle, president of the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA). With decades of leadership and a deep commitment to advancing the captive industry, Dan shares his insights on the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping this year's event. In this interview, he provides a glimpse into what attendees can expect and how CICA plays a pivotal role in supporting the global captive community.

CICA has long been a voice for the captive insurance industry, monitoring emerging issues and regulatory changes. What key challenges do you see for captives in 2025, and how does the CICA International Conference aim to address them?

According to Ernst & Young's 2024 Global Insurance Outlook report, captives represent nearly 25 percent of the commercial insurance market. As the captive industry becomes a larger part of the overall insurance market, there is no doubt that it makes us a bigger target for those who do not understand our industry and the business purpose of establishing and operating a captive insurance company.

At CICA, we continue to invest in our lobbying and advocacy at the federal level. The captive industry is often misunderstood, and we all need to be diligent in our messaging to educate the broader market and our federal lawmakers. I think this will be a larger challenge for our industry and we all have a role in helping to educate the business purpose of captive insurance to our elected officials.

A unique feature that our conference provides is addressing these challenges and other top-of-mind issues by bringing domicile regulators from across the industry as well as captive association leaders together. CICA provides an opportunity for these leaders to meet behind closed doors to discuss pressing issues during the conference. This is another way that CICA helps promote collaboration and innovation.

Our conference program committee has done another great job bringing together specific issues within the current captive climate this year, and we are pleased to include several important topics in our outstanding educational lineup.

CICA is known for its domicile-neutral approach and global reach. How does this year's conference foster collaboration across international stakeholders, and are there specific global trends or initiatives you're excited to highlight?

As a domicile-neutral event, the CICA conference brings together the best of the best across all domiciles to share their distinct knowledge and experience to learn from each other. We also bring together all the top North American domiciles, many who attend with exhibitor booths.

We are looking forward to an exciting panel session of captive regulators from four leading captive domiciles (Vermont, Hawaii, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands), who will share their global insights and trends. I am not aware of these four leading domiciles ever sharing the stage before at a captive conference. It will be an exciting panel to attend.

We are also excited about new captive jurisdictions becoming captive domiciles in Europe. The entrance of France has been an important development to the European market, and the possibility of the United Kingdom adopting a captive regulatory regime would potentially mark a new era of captive insurance development in Europe. We have a fantastic international panel that will discuss this, and the United Kingdom's top captive advocate is participating. We expect this to be another exciting panel that you will not want to miss.

Under your leadership, the CICA International Conference has grown significantly. What new features, themes, or sessions can attendees expect at this year's event that set it apart from previous years?

Along with our conference's growth, the captive industry is experiencing sustained growth. To keep up with the challenges of maintaining and acquiring top talent, the CICA conference will have a variety of sessions and topics focusing on professional development and aligning resources with women and young professionals in the industry. What is exciting to see, recently, is that other captive conferences are also including more sessions promoting women and young professionals in insurance. I think it is wonderful that the industry has noticed our continued work in these valuable sectors and is deciding to support these important initiatives by promoting them at their conferences.

Thanks to attendee surveys, we received many helpful suggestions to keep our conference a valuable and up-to-date resource for educational topics. Medical stop-loss sessions are in high demand, so we added two panels for this year. We work to provide a balance of big-picture topics as well as specific content-focused sessions, such as health care, artificial intelligence, real estate, and cannabis.

Captive owners and managers are increasingly dealing with emerging risks, from cyber threats to climate change. What are some of the innovative strategies or solutions that you expect will be discussed at the conference?

You do not need to be a climatologist to understand the impact that hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and droughts will have on the insurance market. Uniquely, the captive industry is one of the few areas that can often stay ahead of emerging risks, especially as the traditional insurance market is having trouble coming up with solutions to address these challenges. The CICA conference will feature sessions on climate risks in captives, as well as a variety of new and evolving risks in the United States and internationally.

One of the exciting things about the CICA conference is when you bring together top industry leaders to discuss their experiences and insights, good things happen. Our attendees always come excited to hear what creative ideas and trending strategies captive owners are doing to address risks or what captive managers and consultants are recommending. There is always something new to walk away with.

CICA places a strong emphasis on education, including through its partnership with the International Center for Captive Insurance Education (ICCIE). How will this year's conference continue to support knowledge-sharing and professional development for attendees?

We are proud to be ICCIE's top financial contributor, and ICCIE is our educational partner throughout the year. We encourage anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge base in the captive industry and pursue their Associate in Captive Insurance (ACI) designation through ICCIE. Our conference offers ICCIE credits for most of our sessions.

At our conference this year, there will be six sessions focused on professional development and our Amplify Women and NEXTGen initiatives. We also offer many networking opportunities before and during the conference in relaxed settings, which attendees find valuable to maintaining and building industry connections.

I encourage all CICA members to invite colleagues to sign up for updates and participate in CICA's NEXTGen and Amplify Women initiatives. Through these programs, CICA works to cultivate a supportive captive community where today's new talent and those entering the industry see opportunities to build their careers. Participating in these programs is a great way to invest in the future—for yourself, your colleagues, and your business.

You've been at the forefront of shaping regulatory discussions for captives. What key regulatory topics or updates should attendees look out for at this year's conference?

CICA continues to provide feedback for potential captive domiciles that are being formed. We have a long history of promoting all domiciles to utilize best practices when it comes to the regulation and formation of captives. Most recently, we have been providing comments to the United Kingdom's consultation period on their potential captive insurance regulatory regime. We are excited to share that we will have their top advocate for establishing the United Kingdom as a captive domicile in attendance and on a panel this year.

Our biggest regulatory update will be in a global captive market outlook from a panel of regulators across some of the world's largest captive domiciles. They will review captive statistics from 2024 and forecast the direction of 2025. Regulatory updates are included in many of our educational sessions, and attendees will walk away with a well-rounded knowledge base on regulatory strategies across the industry.

Looking ahead, how do you see the role of captive insurance evolving, and what steps is CICA taking to ensure the industry remains resilient and innovative in the face of new challenges?

The captive industry was born out of innovation, and CICA remains at the forefront of collaboration for solutions in the insurance industry. Who better knows their evolving risks than the organization that finances those risks? Whether it will be strategies for climate change claims or other emerging risks that may become excluded from traditional insurers, I very much expect captives to play a decisive role in those solutions.

Our conference sessions will provide valuable insights to first-time attendees who are just learning this industry and veterans alike. The industry is growing fast, with more interest in the expansion and greater utilization of one's existing captive structure. There will be many sessions that will share the evolution of adding additional lines of coverage as well as increasing one's retention in an existing captive.

Our association draws the best and the brightest from all domiciles, and we welcome their insights to shape the future of captive insurance. The CICA conference is the ideal domicile-neutral environment to connect all areas of captives and risk management with new ideas. Each year is different, and incredible things come out of it for attendees to build their knowledge base and improve their business. If you are in the captive industry and want to attend the conference that brings together the entire captive industry in a supportive environment to share innovation, you need to be at CICA!

Mr. Towle is pictured above. (Photo courtesy of CICA.)