Habart Named Director of Tennessee’s Surging Captive Section

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has promoted the Captive Insurance Section’s acting manager to be director of the section.

Jonathan Habart has been acting director since Aug. 3 and was assistant director for 10 months prior to that, the department said in a bulletin Monday. Habart’s selection came after an extensive nationwide search.

“While we interviewed many capable candidates during our national search, Jonathan proved to be the strongest candidate for the position because of his proven leadership, institutional and regulatory knowledge and his close working relationships with Tennessee’s numerous captive companies and the Tennessee Captive Insurance Association,” said TDCI Commissioner Carter Lawrence.

The assistant commissioner for insurance, Bill Huddleston, said that the state’s success as a captive domicile is the result of regulatory innovations, and Habart should continue that approach.

Changes to the state’s captive laws include authorizing parametric insurance coverage and reducing the statutory capital, needed by protected cell captive insurers to begin operations, from $250,000 to $100,000.

Tennessee is ranked 10th worldwide for captive domiciles and is the 6th largest captive domicile in the United States, the department said. Since modernizing its captive laws in 2011, Tennessee has 150 active licensed companies and 486 risk-bearing entities with annual gross written premium exceeding $1.72 billion.

Topics Tennessee