Commissioner Stewart Hails Director Kinion for Winning “Advocate of the Year” Honors

DOVER, DE –Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart announced today that her captive insurance director, Steve Kinion, was recently selected as the 2016 Captive Insurance Industry Advocate of the Year.  Captive Review magazine recognized Kinion as its inaugural recipient for the award.  Over the past two years, Captive Review has also named Kinion as one of the top five influential people in captive insurance in the magazine’s annual Captive Power 50 rankings.

“When I brought Steve on board as my captive director in 2009, I knew that he had a unique set of skills to help me build and maintain a premier captive insurance program,” said Stewart. “Since then, captive insurance has provided tremendous value for Delaware.”

In August, the University of Delaware released an economic impact study which shows that the Department of Insurance’s captive insurance program contributes nearly $360 million to Delaware’s annual gross domestic product.  The study also found that the captive program directly and indirectly supports 2,537 Delaware jobs, creates almost $109 million in additional income, and generates over $5 million for the state in tax revenue. “I was glad to receive this third-party confirmation that our captive program is having a significant positive effect on Delaware’s economy,” said Stewart.

“I was also proud that captive insurance revenues provided the funding this year for programs that train Delaware’s future doctors and dentists,” Stewart added.  One of five states without an in-state medical or dental school, Delaware annually pays for 25 medical and 5 dental slots with medical and dental schools in Philadelphia so that state residents have the opportunity to become doctors and dentists and return to Delaware to establish their practices. Surplus revenue generated by the captive insurance program was used to fund the Delaware Institute for Medical Education and Research, known as DIMER, and the Delaware Institute for Dental Education and Research, or DIDER, which reserve positions for Delaware students at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry.

For more information about the Department’s Bureau of Captive & Financial Insurance Products, visit http://captive.delawareinsurance.gov/ or call 302.577.5281.

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UD Report: Captive Insurance Program Boosts Delaware’s GDP, Jobs, Incomes, Tax Revenue

Commissioner Stewart Celebrates Captive Bureau’s Economic Impact

DOVER, DE –Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart today announced the release of a University of Delaware economic impact study which shows that the Department of Insurance’s captive insurance program contributes nearly $360 million to Delaware’s annual gross domestic product. The captive program also directly and indirectly supports 2,537 Delaware jobs, creates almost $109 million in additional income, and generates over $5 million for the state in tax revenue, the report shows.

The study, The Economic Contributions of the Captive Insurance Industry to the Delaware Economy, was conducted on behalf of the DOI by the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics’ Center for Applied Business & Economic Research (CABER), which has produced similar economic impact studies for the Firefly Music Festival and Delaware’s horseracing industry.

CABER surveyed 1081captive insurance companies doing business in Delaware and used data from businesses providing services to those companies. The report breaks out the program’s economic impact per $1,000 spent by the DOI for the captive industry. For every $1,000 spent, 1.95 jobs are created, $83,574 in income is generated, and $4,301 in taxes are collected. Captive program spending supports 950 jobs in finance and investment industry, 447 jobs in legal, accounting and professional support, and 209 retail jobs. The complete report may be found at http://captive.delawareinsurance.gov/docs/pdfs/captive-industry-impact-on-de-econ-caber-report-201608.pdf

“I instituted the Bureau of Captive and Financial Insurance Products in 2009 and I’ve watched it grow ever since,” said Commissioner Stewart. “Thanks to my captive director, Steve Kinion, and my topnotch captive staff, we are consistently one of the top captive domiciles in the US and in the world. But until now, I don’t think many people were aware of exactly what we contribute to Delaware’s economy. The CABER report rewards my faith in captives as a revenue generator for our state.”

Captive insurance entities are owned by the companies that they insure, and are generally formed by businesses who wish to better manage the cost and administration of their insurance coverage. DOI’s captive bureau is self-sustaining and currently contributes an annual surplus in tax and fee revenue of over $3 million to the Delaware general fund.

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For more information please contact Jerry Grant at 302-577-5259
captive.delawareinsurance.gov
www.delawareinsurance.gov