Skip to main content
P&C Group Captive

ASCEND. Our A/B captive.

Workers comp, general liability, and auto liability for well run commercial accounts that have outgrown the guaranteed cost market and can show the loss history to prove it. Accepting submissions now.

Program specs

StructureGroup captive, A/B model
Captive retention$500,000
Minimum premium$250,000
Participation fee$40,000
DomicileNorth Carolina
OnboardingAs little as 12 weeks
Coverage

Lines we write.

Captive retention is $500,000. The fronting carrier sits above that, so a single large loss does not land on the member.

WC
Workers Compensation
GL
General Liability
AL
Auto Liability
APD
Auto Physical Damage

Program partners

Fronting carrierAscot
Third Party AdministratorSedgwick
ActuaryPinnacle
Captive managerCC / First State
Investment advisorTruist
Legal counselWomble Bond Dickinson
Tax and auditJohnson Lambert
A/B model

How the money actually works.

Operating 35%
A Fund 70%
B Fund 30%
Operating costs, reinsurance, and fronting A Fund, frequent claims B Fund, larger claims
Off the top

Operating, about 35%

Covers operating costs, reinsurance, and the fronting carrier. Spent, not banked.

What is left

Reserves, about 65%

The member's own money, funding their own future claims.

The split

A Fund and B Fund, 70/30

The A Fund absorbs frequent smaller claims. The B Fund absorbs the larger ones.

The backstop

Above $500,000

The fronting carrier responds. Not the member, and not the group.

Defense costs sit inside reserve funding. Whatever reserve is left after claims stays eligible for distribution. Assessments are capped at one additional fund rather than being open ended.

Eligibility

Who fits ASCEND.

What we are looking for

  • At least $250,000 in combined annual premium across workers comp, general liability, and auto liability
  • Five years of currently valued loss runs and experience mods
  • Losses that respond to safety and claims discipline rather than luck
  • An owner who will engage on loss control, not just buy a policy
  • A class that is not on the excluded list

Excluded classes

  • Underground mining
  • All federal exposures
  • Longshore and harbor workers
  • Explosive manufacturing
  • Petrochemical

Everything else in the commercial space is worth a conversation. Use the checker below if you are not sure how a class is coded.

Appetite checker

Green, yellow, or red?

Every class on the ASCEND list carries an appetite colour. Check before you spend time on an account, not after. Red is a program decision, not a comment on the risk.

Check a NAICS code against ASCEND appetite

1,001 classes colour coded green, yellow, or red. Enter a NAICS code for a verdict, a SIC code to convert it first, or a plain word to search by what the business does.

Try

SIC codes convert automatically using the 2022 NAICS to SIC crosswalk. Where one SIC maps to several NAICS classes with different colours, every option is shown, because the colour depends on what the business actually does rather than how it was coded.

Submissions

What a complete submission looks like.

Agent of record is settled by whoever first provides complete data. Send it complete and you get a faster answer and a stronger position.

  • Five years of currently valued loss runs, all lines
  • Five years of experience mods with payroll or receipts by class
  • Current dec pages and expiring premium detail
  • Vehicle schedule and driver list with MVRs
  • Written safety program and claims handling detail
  • Renewal date and incumbent carrier
Questions

ASCEND in detail.

Reserves are split into two buckets: an A Fund that absorbs the frequent smaller claims a member is most likely to have, and a B Fund that sits behind it for the larger ones, with group risk sharing and the fronting carrier above that.
Combined across workers comp, general liability, and auto liability. An account at $180,000 in comp alone is not there yet, but the same account with GL and auto often is.
It is a one time cost at entry, currently $40,000. It is not premium and it is not a deposit against claims. Treat it as the cost of joining the group.
Collateral is required and rolls off over roughly three years as the captive seasons. The calculator models the shape of it for a specific account.
Sedgwick is the third party administrator. Pinnacle is the actuary, Ascot is the fronting carrier, and the captive is managed by Captive Coalition with First State.

Have an account that might fit ASCEND?

Run the numbers on it first, then bring it to us. Complete submissions get faster answers and settle agent of record.