This is a fair question and one worth answering clearly, because the wrong answer in either direction costs you. Say yes too early, and you waste months on something that was never going to work. Say no too quickly, and you walk away from an account that could have been exactly what you were looking for.
So let's talk about the actual line.
The table stakes for a group captive are $250,000 in combined annual premiums across workers' comp, general liability, and auto. That's not an arbitrary number. It's the threshold where the economics of a captive actually make sense. Below that, the math doesn't work in your client's favor. The cost of participation, the collateral requirement, the administrative overhead, none of it pencils out if the premium isn't there to support it.
Now here's where agents get confused. They look at a client with $200,000 in premium and clean losses and think, "The losses are great, why wouldn't this work?" The losses matter enormously, but the premium is what funds the captive. Without enough premium, there's nothing to work with. Clean losses on a small account are a great profile for a traditional market. It's not enough to make a captive viable.
The flip side is also true. Premium alone doesn't get you there. A client spending $300,000 with a messy claims history and no interest in investing in safety or risk management is not a captive fit either. The premium opens the door. The losses and the mindset are what determine whether you walk through it.
If you're genuinely unsure where your client lands, don't guess. Come to us before you ask your client for anything. Tell us what you know about the premium, the lines of business, and a rough picture of the losses. We can tell you quickly whether it's worth pursuing, whether it needs more time, or whether the premium just isn't there. That's a five-minute conversation that can save you months of work on the wrong account.
And if the answer today is not quite yet, that doesn't mean the door is closed. Businesses grow. Premiums change. An account that's at $210,000 today might be at $275,000 in a year. We want to know about it now, so you're already positioned when the time comes.
Don't walk away from a good profile just because the premium is borderline. And don't push an account forward just because the losses are clean. Know both numbers, bring them to us, and let's figure out together where it stands.
It's always your client. Never ours.