Building Our Bold Momentum: An ICS Mid-Year Update

2026 has been a year of action, and we’re just getting started. From packed boardrooms to new digital investments, the Innovative Captive Strategies (ICS) team has spent the first half of the year delivering for our captive community and laying the groundwork for what comes next.

Our Captive Community Showed Up in a Big Way

With over 40 captive events under our belt in the first half of the year, our captive community has been fully engaged. From Property & Casualty Board of Directors’ (BOD) Meetings and Risk Control Workshops (RCW) to Employee Benefits (EB) Member Meetings, these touchpoints are experiences where relationships deepen and ideas take shape.

Seeing more than 3,000 members at these events reflects something real: the captive model is resonating, and our members want to be part of the conversation. This engagement and energy drives everything we’re building for the second half of 2026.

Recognizing Bold Ideas that Change the Game

One of the most exciting things we’ve launched this year is the ICS Innovator Award—a recognition program built around a simple belief: the best ideas inside our captive community deserve to be celebrated and shared. From initiatives that elevate safety and boost employee engagement to strategies that foster collaboration and drive measurable results, we’re showcasing the member innovations that make a real impact.

Innovation in a captive isn’t abstract. Innovation means a new safety measure that was actually put into practice and is paying off with measurable results.  Or it could be a process improvement that saved resources. Or an employee retention program that kept valuable team members and increased engagement. Our members are doing incredible work, and this award shines a light on their progress and offers a learning opportunity for our members.

Submissions are open across five categories: Safety Enhancement, Technological Advancement, Employee Engagement & Retention, Sustainable Practice, and Process Improvement.

We designed this program to be peer-driven on purpose. Recognition from your fellow captive directors means something different than a plaque from a vendor. We want the captive community to own this and inspire each other to keep raising the bar. Curious? Reach out to your ICS Risk Management Lead.

What’s on the Horizon for Our Community

The second half of 2026 brings a host of major investments in how our members and broker partners experience ICS support and service.

Enhancing the ICS Community Portal

Our member and broker portal is getting an upgrade! A great portal isn’t just a login page—it’s a destination. We’re focused on the things that matter to users: fast load times, intuitive navigation, personalized content relevant to you, and a clean dashboard that surfaces the most relevant information. Our goal is to create a portal that feels like it was built for you, not for a generic user.

Smoother Prospect Submission Process for Brokers

We’re also streamlining how broker partners submit underwriting information. The friction in the current process—manual forms, back-and-forth emails, unclear next steps—costs time for everyone. We’re building a cleaner, technology-driven submission flow that gives brokers a straightforward path to submit prospective captive accounts, track the status, and stay informed without the extra legwork. Less process friction means more focus on the client relationship, which is where brokers do their best work. And it wouldn’t be 2026 if the new process didn’t involve AI, would it?!

2026 is shaping up to be a landmark year for ICS and the captive community we serve. Every event, every new submission, every portal login reflects upon a community that is engaged, growing, and doing business boldly. We can’t wait to share more as the year continues.

ICS Group Captives: A Strategic, Forward-Looking Approach

ICS group captives are strategic, data-driven and forward thinking.  By leveraging transparency and analytics, we continuously evaluate how today’s decisions impact future outcomes, unlocking opportunities for improved performance, cost controls and long-term sustainable solutions.

Employee Benefits Group Captives

In Employee Benefits, key trends include claim volatility, increasing exposure to specialty medications, and a growing need for proactive, hands-on plan management.

• Data transparency is a strategic advantage: ICS EB captives provide access to clear, transparent and actionable data. Our data model enables us to understand historical claims experience, anticipate emerging risks and proactively guide our members and broker partners to design flexible, data-driven benefit plans that align with employers’ workforce needs.
• Proactive risk management through early detection and preventative care: Monitoring specialty drug utilization combined with a strong focus on preventative care – including cancer screenings and early intervention – provides valuable insight into emerging high-risk members before they become significant claim drivers. Leveraging the visibility provided by the captive structure, ICS helps employers take earlier, more informed action, supporting better clinical outcomes for employees while reducing the likelihood of advanced conditions and high-cost claims over time.

With rising costs and mounting frustration, companies are joining Employee Benefits Group Captives in unprecedented numbers to capitalize on the advantages unavailable in the fully insured and traditional marketplace. Leveraging strength in numbers, benefiting from enhanced transparency and unlocking the ability to proactively manage health plans, ICS Employee Benefits Captives empower employers to move from passive purchasers of insurance to active stewards of their healthcare strategy, driving both improved employee outcomes and long-term financial sustainability.

Property Casualty Group Captives

Within Property & Casualty, key trends include retention analysis, reinsurance partnerships, and impactful short-term auto strategies emerging in the first half of 2026.

• Risk for Reward: Increasingly, ICS captives are eager to assume more risk within their captive. Over the last 25 years, ICS captives have used their data and industry-leading performance to determine the appropriate risk layers and develop unique structures to optimize profitability and stability within their captive.  As a result of continued growth and performance in our captives, there is an opportunity and desire from our captives to retain more of the predictable and influenceable layers in the captive to enhance the status quo.  ICS remains committed to creating innovative risk financing solutions with our reinsurance partners that optimize stability and opportunity while keeping risk and volatility in check.
• Auto is still a four-letter word: Captive members may be weary of hearing about auto, and for good reason. But it’s not going away anytime soon. Auto Liability continues as the top driver (pun intended) of claims both among captives and across the P&C industry. Even best-in-class companies face challenges in the auto market with nuclear verdicts, distracted drivers and other hazards impacting auto safety. ICS continues to refine eligibility criteria from an underwriting standpoint, while members use peer encouragement to boost telematics adoption. Low-cost, high-return tools like continuous MVR monitoring are becoming minimum standards across ICS captives.

Even with a softening P&C market, captives remain the top business strategy for best-in-class companies. Group captive growth shows no signs of slowing down. Where else can you transform annual sunk costs into real ROI, all while collaborating with a peer group of elite companies committed to mutual improvement? Exactly.

Leveling Up All Day Every Day

We’re halfway through the year, but ICS isn’t slowing down—we’re just hitting our stride. We continue to level up for our captive community with stronger partnerships and sharper strategies that empower you to own your insurance.

If you’re ready to do business boldly with ICS, reach out to our team today!