Could Cell Company Developments Signal The End For Traditional Captives?

John Rowson, Executive Director at Aon Risk Solutions in Guernsey, considers the role of the traditional captive.

Recently at Captive Live UK, a fellow panellist advised that over 90% of new business in Guernsey was through cells and similar proportions of new business were being generated by cells in other jurisdictions with appropriate legislation. Furthermore, domiciles without cell legislation were stagnating and captive numbers reducing across the board.

After the discussion I was approached by a delegate who asked were "cells the death knell of traditional captives?".

I had also been extolling the virtues of cells being the head of White Rock Guernsey, the Aon owned and managed protected and incorporated cell companies. But was still slightly surprised by this comment, however, in hindsight it was very logical given the statistics. It is worthwhile interrogating the numbers a little closer and asking how we should look at the statistics given the old adage