Talking all things captives at IEBA conference in Winterthur

Captives were the topic of the day at the International Employee Benefits Association (IEBA) Switzerland conference in Winterthur on 25 October. Over 50 attendees, comprised of IEBA members, local insurers and brokers joined MAXIS and our co-hosts AXA XL for an afternoon of speakers and a panel debate at the Banana City Hotel.

MAXIS GBN Account Executive Markus Leutenegger moderated the event alongside Isabelle Amschwand the President of IEBA Switzerland.

With the increasing utilisation of captives to manage employee benefits (EB), it is little wonder the topic produced a day of fascinating debate and discussion amongst the speakers and attendees.

Barry Perkins, Mercer Marsh, looked at the trends in the EB industry that are influencing multinationals to look at more global EB solutions, with the changing workforce, globalisation, cost management and digitisation all contributing to the change in mindset. Mercer Marsh estimates that the use of captives for global employee benefits has more than doubled in the last five years, with more than 120 companies choosing a captive solution.

With more companies opting for captive solutions, Marine Charbonnier, Head of Integrated Solutions at AXA XL, looked at the pros and cons of captives, as well as the differences between property and commercial captives and EB captives. Claude Breutel and Angela Benedetti from Syngenta then took the delegates through their journey to an EB captive. 

The speakers returned to the stage to end proceedings, joined by Sebastian Willmanowski, Director of Group Treasury at Merck Group, for a panel discussion on all things captives. Moderated by Markus Leutenegger, the panel provided fascinating insight on captives with a network, insurer, broker and clients all represented.

Thanks to IEBA, AXA XL, all speakers and attendees for an interesting day of discussion and debate.