N.C. captive insurance industry marks another strong year

RALEIGH Mar 9, 2026 Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey today announced that North Carolina’s captive insurance industry had another strong year in 2025. “North Carolina is a great choice for captive owners to call home with its prudent regulation and dedicated team of financial analysts, examiners and actuaries,” Commissioner Causey said. “I strongly encourage businesses evaluating self-insurance options to consider North Carolina’s business-friendly environment when choosing where to domicile their captive insurance company.” Captive insurance is a form of self-insurance through which a business may form its own insurance company to manage its risks. The 2013 North Carolina Captive Insurance Act provides the Commissioner with a great deal of discretion in regulating captive insurers. This flexibility allows our experienced regulatory team to meet the evolving risk management needs of business owners of all sizes. The captive insurance industry has increasingly taken on the role of innovator in addressing emerging risks and new technologies. The industry can be a nimble risk transfer alternative to the traditional markets. North Carolina is a domicile well positioned to address these emergency risks. In 2025, 21 new captive insurance companies were licensed with approximately 80 cells and series approved. These licenses granted by the state were for both new insurer formations as well as the relocation of other captive insurers to North Carolina from other captive domiciles. The newly licensed captive insurers represent varied industries, such as financial services and insurance, transportation, healthcare, construction and manufacturing. North Carolina’s 2025 domiciled captive insurers were comprised of 188 pure captive insurers, 48 protected cell captive insurers, nine risk retention groups and 18 special purpose captive insurers. At year end 2025, more than 1,000 risk-bearing captive insurance entities were under the regulation of the N.C. Department of Insurance. These include 263 captive insurance companies and 746 cells and series (including conditional licenses and approvals). The Department’s captive insurance regulation team will be participating in the N.C. Captive Insurance Association’s annual conference from Aug. 23-26 at the Le Meridian in Charlotte. Registration information will be available at the association’s website, https://www.nccia.org/ . To learn more about the state’s captive insurance program, contact Deputy Commissioner Lori Gorman at Lori.Gorman@ncdoi.gov or visit www.nccaptives.com . Related Topics: NCDOI NC Department of Insurance Press Release Captive Insurance