Big decisions in the business world require appropriate information and knowledge. When companies act without these things, they open themselves up to significant downside. In what has become known as the “knowledge economy,” the most profitable companies have figured out how to leverage proper strategic decision making in order to gain a long-term edge. With this in mind, insurance is one of the most important things for any business. From manufacturing companies that have significant liability with their employees to law firms that run into professional liability, insurance can prevent many headaches. What kind of insurance is best? Is the traditional insurance industry adequate? Or should companies try something new, like captive insurance services? To answer these questions, many companies turn to skilled consultants.
Captive insurance consulting is all about looking at the individual dynamics of a business and determining the proper course of action for that particular company. When it comes to insurance, the important questions have to do with risk level, the size of the industry at large and just what companies are getting out of their relationship with standard insurers. When captive insurance comes into the picture, companies end up teaming up with their direct competitors to provide value for everyone. In most cases, this is a very positive experience. For a small number of companies, this is not the right choice. To figure out where they fall on this list, companies enlist consulting firms.
Captive insurance industry consulting helps add the industry knowledge that companies simply don’t have. For those companies working in the shipping industry, for instance, their body of knowledge is tied up in getting things from Point A to Point B without incident. They rarely know enough about the insurance industry to make great decisions on the many options at their disposal. While it might be tempting just to listen to corporate insurance sales people and make a quick choice, it’s worth getting expertise if you can save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The captive insurance movement is giving companies the chance to cash in on those huge savings. It makes companies themselves shareholders in their own insurance company, getting back to the true purpose of insurance in the first place. Many companies are interested in this, and consulting services allow them to make this somewhat unconventional choice with the full confidence that they’re doing the right thing.