The Cayman Islands are an increasingly popular choice for insurance vehicles in the offshore world. The number and quality of the insurance managers and other service providers located in the Cayman Islands, as well as the progressive approach adopted by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, the regulator for insurance business, have all contributed to a growing insurance industry in recent years.
Walkers has an established and experienced team of lawyers specialising in insurance matters. We act for a large number of insurance managers in the Cayman Islands, advising regularly on the establishment of local insurers, captives, rent-a-captives and other insurance products.
In addition to the traditional captive insurance and reinsurance markets, we have been involved in the development of innovative financial products such as catastrophe bond issues, a hybrid insurance/capital markets instrument, where actuarially calculated insurance risks undertaken by an insurance vehicle are securitised and then marketed as an investment product.
We also made a significant contribution to the introduction of Segregated Portfolio Companies legislation in the Cayman Islands for insurance companies. This legislation, which has been one of the most significant recent innovations, provides for separate "portfolios" where the liabilities and assets of each portfolio are protected from those of the other portfolios or otherwise from the general assets of the insurance company.