Views From The Summit  #6
Colin Mitchell, President of Great Pacific Group

This episode is the sixth installment of the ‘Views from the Summit’ series of peer to peer discussions with leaders in the Captive Insurance Industry. John Howard, President of Summit Asset Management chats with today’s guest Colin Mitchell, President of Great Pacific Group. Colin shares his perspective on the captive industry, with his background in working in several different capacities in the industry. He also discusses his transition to living and working in Barbados, the impact of the pandemic on captive insurance clients, and the benefits of Barbados as a domicile.

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Video Outline

• 00:15 - Colin's career journey

• Economics degree, accounting designation, desire to work operations of companies

• Joined Marsh McClennan in Toronto, in the captives space with them for over 10 years

• Moving into a more entrepreneurial brokerage opportunity

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• 3:50 Viewing captives from a broker perspective

• Captives as an opportunity and not a threat

• Synergy between the consulting/brokerage and captive management

• 4:30 Working with Great Pacific Group

• Great Pacific moved into captive management business, for self-management, then decided to extend to external clients

• A match made - management (Great Pacific Group) + brokerage (HUB)

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• 5:20 Colin's move to Barbados

• Growth in clients - more back and forth between Canada and Barbados for meetings

• Eventually, decided to relocate with family

• Barbados - more than beach, a place for work not just play

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• 7:53 New role at Great Pacific

• Change in gears - from consulting and brokerage, to now operations and management

• COVID challenges - learned to adapt to remote interactions

• Return to face-to-face welcomed

• Credits to great team at Great Pacific to support growth in client base

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• 9:58 More about Great Pacific Group

• Focus on substance - in addition to accounting and legal services, underwriting and claims management done locally

○ Active underwriting

○ Overseas touch for relationship management

• For clients who want to get into insurance - provides vertical integration

• Independent player approach

○ Relationships with brokerages who need captive management

○ Entrepreneurial spirit and backing

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• 14:40 New client experience

• New clients still moving ahead despite lack of face to face due to hard market in insurance

• Clients getting to come down as countries open up - Great Pacific facilitates

○ Great Pacific organizes meetings for clients - meet your team (banking, IM, auditor)

○ Depth of talent - clients often surprised by quality of financial services in Barbados

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• 17:30 Investment management (IM) observations

• Colin's background as a CFA

• Accounting view vs investment view of a captive - blending the two

○ Need for return on capital of a captive

○ Managing income streams - premium and investment income

○ Conservativism in asset allocation driven by maturity level

○ Flexibility, innovation within portfolio constraints is key

○ Canadian captives with largely property liability risk - liquidity management is also important

○ Volatility management with opportunity to earn yield is the goal

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• 23:25 Trends in IM for captives

• Often, newer captives will default to working within known relationships

• An opportunity under ES for local investment management

• Majority of clients do tend to outsource IM

• A good selection of on-island choices for IM

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• 26:03 Value proposition of captive industry to Barbados

• Barbados Risk and Insurance Management Conference (BRIMs) - raising Barbados' profile in the global industry

• The industry offers well-paying jobs, talent development, can help Barbados reduce brain drain

• Clients enjoy Bajan hospitality when visiting

• Knock on effects - clients go back and spread the word, both socially and professionally

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• 28:55 How can a young professional get into captive insurance?

• Accounting and legal opportunities which are the usual ones people think of

• But also, opportunities in insurance - possible career path is to get offshore experience in insurance industry and come back

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• 30.55 Colin's blue-sky ideas for advancing Barbados' ranking in captive industry

• Who are we really competing against for reinsurance business? Bermuda vs. London model

Opportunity - widening the insurance markets locally, focusing on bringing quality reinsurance markets to Barbados at a cost effective rate