MGA Verve Launches Captive Insurance Brokers & Products Portal

Verve Risk Services, the London-based managing general agent, has announced the launch of a captive insurance product and its ‘Verve Aura’ broker portal, designed to meet the evolving needs of clients.

Founded in 2016 and backed by OneAdvent, the specialist MGA services platform, Verve received investment from BP Marsh just over a year ago.

Verve provides professional liability and management solutions for insurance intermediaries and captives. The new product – Micro-Captive Defender – strengthens its offering within the insurance intermediary and captive space. In partnership with Ashford, Conn.-based captive consultant Michael Maglares & Co., Verve’s new product offers captive insurance companies defense cost coverage.

Scott Simmons, director of Verve and co-founder and lead underwriter of the program, explained that the product includes coverage “for fines and penalties related to IRS investigations arising from statute 831(b), the exploitation of which has shaken the captive market.”

(Editor’s note: Captive insurers that have made the 831(b) tax election have come under scrutiny from the IRS, according to Milliman, the actuarial and consulting firm. “Section 831(b) of the U.S. federal tax code allows an insurance company to pay taxes only on their investment income (as opposed to net income, as a result quite a few captive insurance companies that have made the 831(b) tax election have been audited by the IRS for allegedly being set up not to offer insurance , but only to get tax benefits,” Milliman said.)

In another announcement, Verve said it has spent the past 12 months developing the “Verve Aura” portal, which aims to streamline the way brokers can offer insurance to their clients.

“We wanted to make the system as easy to use as possible and improve the process of quoting, document production and invoicing,“ commented Alan Lambert, director and co-founder of Verve.

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