Enterprise · Captive management
One manager accountable for the vehicle.
Most captive owners end up with four vendors — a manager, an actuary, an auditor and a tax adviser — who each blame the others when the department asks a question. We take the whole file.
Feasibility, before anything is filed
Loss history reconstructed, retained layer modelled, structure compared against guaranteed cost and against a plain large deductible. If the numbers do not support a captive we write that down and send it to you. A feasibility study that always concludes "form a captive" is a sales document, not a study.
Domicile selection with the arithmetic shown
Capital, premium tax, fees, formation time, cell availability, examination culture, and whether your fronting carrier and your reinsurers are comfortable there. Ranked, with the reason for each rank.
Licence application and capitalisation
Business plan, pro formas, actuarial opinion, biographical affidavits, capital funding and the organisational documents. We manage the department relationship through to the licence.
Running it
Underwriting and policy issuance, premium and claims accounting, quarterly and annual statutory filings, the annual actuarial opinion, the audit, the tax return, board meetings and minutes, and the examination when it comes.
Risk distribution, taken seriously
A captive that insures one parent's own risk and nothing else is the structure the IRS has spent a decade litigating. Third-party or embedded business, pooling arrangements and brother-sister structures are how distribution is actually achieved. We build for it from day one rather than bolting it on before an audit.
Exit, planned at formation
Run-off, loss portfolio transfer or commutation. A vehicle you cannot wind down cleanly is a liability with a licence.
Domicile comparison
Section 831(b) written-premium ceiling for 2026: $2,900,000. Everything below is indicative, last checked 2026-09-06, and must be confirmed with the domicile before a filing.
| Domicile | Jurisdiction | Min. capital | Premium tax | Annual fees | Formation | Cells | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vermont | US onshore | $250,000 | Graduated on direct written premium, tiered downward; statutory annual cap. | $12,500 | 6–10 wks | yes | The benchmark U.S. onshore domicile. Deepest regulatory bench, most predictable examinations, and the one most fronting carriers and reinsurers are already comfortable with. |
| Tennessee | US onshore | $250,000 | No captive premium tax; annual renewal fee only. | $7,500 | 4–8 wks | yes | Aggressive, service-oriented department. No premium tax makes the arithmetic clean. Strong protected-cell statute. |
| Utah | US onshore | $250,000 | No premium tax; flat annual renewal fee. | $6,000 | 4–8 wks | yes | Low friction and low cost. Popular for smaller single-parent captives and 831(b) elections. |
| Delaware | US onshore | $250,000 | Graduated on direct and assumed premium; statutory annual cap. | $10,000 | 4–8 wks | yes | Series-captive statute and a well-known corporate bench. |
| North Carolina | US onshore | $250,000 | Graduated on direct and assumed premium; statutory annual cap. | $8,500 | 4–8 wks | yes | Fast-growing onshore domicile with a cost-competitive schedule. |
| Arizona | US onshore | $250,000 | No premium tax; flat annual fee. | $5,500 | 4–8 wks | yes | No premium tax and a light-touch renewal process. |
| Hawaii | US onshore | $250,000 | Graduated on written premium; statutory annual cap. | $12,000 | 8–14 wks | yes | The natural onshore domicile for Asia-Pacific parents; time-zone advantage for a global concern with an APAC head office. |
| Mississippi | US onshore | $250,000 | Graduated on direct and assumed premium; statutory annual cap. | $7,500 | 6–12 wks | yes | IronKey's home domicile. Practical for a Mississippi-headquartered parent that wants its regulator in the same time zone and its counsel admitted in the same state. |
| Kentucky | US onshore | $250,000 | Graduated on written premium; statutory annual cap. | $7,000 | 6–12 wks | yes | Cost-competitive onshore option. |
| Kentucky (incorporated cell) | US onshore | $100,000 | Cell-level fee; sponsor carries the core capital. | $4,000 | 3–6 wks | yes | Cell structure: lower capital and faster formation, at the cost of some independence from the sponsor's core. |
| Cayman Islands | offshore | $100,000 | No premium tax. Annual licence fee by class. | $12,000 | 4–8 wks | yes | Class B(iii) is the workhorse for a global concern. No premium tax, but premium ceded from a U.S. insured to a foreign insurer attracts federal excise tax unless a section 953(d) election is made. |
| Bermuda | offshore | $120,000 | No premium tax. Annual government fee by class. | $20,000 | 4–10 wks | yes | Class 1 / Class 3 for a large global programme with real reinsurance capacity on the island. Solvency II equivalence matters for an EU parent. |
What running the vehicle costs
| Item | Indicative annual | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Management, actuarial, audit and tax | $62,000 | Flat. It does not move with your premium, because it should not. |
| Domicile filing and examination fees | varies | See the table above. |
| Formation, one time | $78,000 | Feasibility, application, capitalisation legal work. |
| Cost of statutory capital | 9% | Applied to capital held in the vehicle. |
| Collateral, as a trust | 0.55% | Against 1.35% for a bank letter of credit. This spread is a real and frequently overlooked saving. |
Model your structure Reinsurance intermediation
Not legal, tax, accounting or actuarial advice. IronKey One LLC is an insurance intermediary and captive manager. It is not a law firm, an accounting firm or an insurer, and it does not pay claims. Insurance offered through licensed agents. IronKey Care is an independent insurance agency, not an insurer. Availability and eligibility vary by state.