Ignorance?!
Who's your biggest competitor? Ignorance. Captive insurance has been around nearly 100 years but remains misunderstood. Education is the key to overcoming it.
Who's Your Biggest Competitor?
Recently I was asked who my biggest competitor is. After considerable thought and reflection, the answer clearly is ignorance.
Let me explain, and if any offense is taken, please direct any frustration, anger, fear, or apathy towards the appropriate culprit — ignorance.
The meaning of ignorance is the state or fact of being ignorant: a lack of knowledge, education, experience, or awareness.
"Ignorance is always afraid of change." — Jawaharlal Nehru
"Ignorance is voluntary misfortune." — Nicholas Ling
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." — Robert Orben
Why Is Captive Insurance Unknown?
Although captive insurance has been utilized in the marketplace for nearly 100 years, this powerful risk management strategy is relatively unknown. Why? Because originally it was only utilized by Fortune 500 companies, and even today, participants in this multi-billion dollar industry appropriately keep their insurance companies private.
Today, captive insurance is known, yet still misunderstood or under-utilized because of ignorance. Captive insurance is simple and complex. The simplicity of owning and operating your own insurance company is simple, yet the very opportunities of flexibility, application, and evolution of captive insurance are still unknown to business owners and their trusted advisors (attorneys, accountants, etc.).
How to Overcome Ignorance
Get educated — talk to business owners who insure their business this way. Speak to experts whose business is captive insurance. Ask your trusted professionals (CPA, attorney, etc.) with the understanding that they may or may not be ignorant in this arena themselves. Regardless, these professionals typically don't feel the burdens you feel as a business owner — burdens which captive insurance relieves and protects.
Captive insurance is simple, captive insurance is complex, and captive insurance is constantly evolving just like your business. Today's captive insurance is not yesterday's captive insurance.
- Read — resources are easily available.
- Watch — countless videos are available.
- Person to person — clearly the most powerful opportunity to become educated is through face-to-face conversations.
Your business is unique, personal, and your personal, unique business can and should be insured with your personal, unique insurance company — your captive insurance company.
A person-to-person conversation is also the most difficult, the riskiest. Why? Because it takes your time, because you may find that captive insurance really can benefit you, and whatever past knowledge or lack of knowledge may not be up to date.
Who Is Captive Insurance For?
Captive insurance ownership is not for every business owner — particularly for business owners who spend everything their business makes. And definitely captive insurance is not for those who don't know anything about it — the benefits, the efficiency, the power. Captive insurance is not for the ignorant.
For businesses and business owners who are profitable, who are seeking a better way, a more efficient means to protect their business, generate a new profit center, and understand the opportunities they have — captive insurance is well worth being educated about. Educated decisions always make the best decisions.