25 years of world-class service offerings
The insurer has reshaped the industry with innovative packages that have made it popular with clients
In the 25 years that Guardrisk has been in existence, it has reshaped the insurance landscape. The company pioneered the concept of contractual cell captive insurance, and remains one of the world’s largest players in this space.
Traditional insurance involves the pooling of premiums and sharing of risks among multiple clients. That inevitably involves an element of cross-subsidisation, with higherrisk clients making a greater claim on the common pool. We see this in medical schemes, where the healthy subsidise the sick, and in car insurance, where safe drivers subsidise the accident-prone. Insurers seek to mitigate this by increasing the premium payments or excess terms of higher-risk clients, and rewarding those who make no claim on the common pool. But it remains an imperfect solution for many.
The cell captive overcomes many of the shortcomings of traditional insurance. In the first group, the insured party is both shareholder and client in the “cell”, receiving dividends to the extent that there are surpluses for distribution, while at the same time receiving insurance cover for specific risks. Under this arrangement, there is a clear incentive for the client to manage risk and to reduce
What it means: New models where client is actively involved in how their policy operates and is given incentives for managing risk