A History of Self-Insurance

Unlike today, at that time there were many gray areas of self-insurance and these included uncertainties over tax treatment, licensing regulations as well as claims administration. The passing of various regulations such as the Employee Retirement Income Supplement Act of 1974, the Federal Liability Risk Retention Act of 1986 and the development of captives and rent-a-captives has meant that an industry has evolved over the past thirty years that today allows many companies to enjoy the benefits of self-insurance.

There are now widely established methods of self-insurance in place supported by specialist service providers such as third party administrators, loss control organisations, risk transfer specialists such as insurance intermediaries and excess insurance companies.