31% of manager use captive/self insurance in rise of alternative insurance products
NAREIM Member Survey: Insurance staffing & resources
May 22, 2024
Almost one-third of real estate investment managers are using or considering self-insurance/captive insurance products as they battle against unprecedented P&C insurance costs, the latest NAREIM member survey has revealed.
Following years of unprecedented premium increases, and the need to start absorbing risk at the manager-level, investment managers have been looking to alternative structures to help offset or mitigate the impact of P&C insurance on deal and portfolio performance.
NAREIM's member survey, conducted between May 8 and May 17, asked about the prevalence of alternatives - and how firms were currently structuring and using internal staff and external resources to meet their coverage needs.
Member request:
A NAREIM member would like to hear from and share practices on insurance staffing and captive insurance programs with fellow members. Firms able to share lessons learned about their internal staffing and captive or alternative insurance products, can contact Zoe Hughes at zhughes@nareim.org to be introduced to the member.
Results from the NAREIM Member Survey: Insurance staffing & resources
What type of insurance?
While 55% of managers were not participating or actively considering alternatives to P&C, 31% were participating or looking at self-insured or captive programs, with another 10% participating or looking at split programs, which bifurcates insurance programs by creating multiple towers of coverage according to occupancy, construction type, geography, etc.
What type of firm?
More than half of all respondents (57%) were independent or PE real estate managers. When assessing responses only from independent firms - and excluding those firms affiliated with an insurance or financial services parent - 27% of firms were participating in or actively considering alternatives to P&C.
Of those 27% of firms looking at alternatives, almost all were using captive or self-insurance programs, while one firm was also using property-plus aggregate programs.
About the Survey:
A total of 26 member organizations representing more than 12,000 FTEs submitted data in the survey, which was conducted between May 8 and May 17, 2024.
Key highlights included:
Internal & external staffing and resources
Almost two-thirds of firms have dedicated real estate insurance teams, with most teams having three FTEs.
Internal teams typically have a head of insurance, followed by mid-level and senior-level support.
Almost three-quarters of managers utilize third-party consultants in addition to brokers
In terms of the top 3 brokers used, they include: Marsh, AON and Gallagher.
Alternative insurance programs
Of the real estate investment managers operating or participating in captive or self insurance products, two-thirds have a pure (wholly owned) captive versus one-third who use a sponsored captive product, with captives mostly providing P&C coverage only.