Leon Rives is the chief visionary officer at RH CPAs, which is based in North Carolina. In the first of what we intend to be a regular series of features on leading companies in the captive insurance world, Captive International talks to Rives about how the company was founded and to delve into the state of the captive insurance industry. 

“Well, in its current form, it started on January 1, 2004, with four employees,” Rives began. However, the firm’s roots go back much further, to the early 1980s when Leon’s father established a sole proprietorship. After Rives graduated college and came home he wanted to grow the company further – and started looking for niches.

This pursuit of specialization led them to a mutual insurance company that needed audit services. Despite being a small firm at the time, Rives was determined. “We weren’t allowed because… we didn’t have the expertise. So I picked up the telephone, and called the regulators and said, ‘What’s it going to take for us to be allowed to do audits for insurance companies?'” After completing the required 40 hours of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) in statutory reporting, RH CPAs has grown steadily and strongly. Today, the firm boasts several offices in the US and one overseas, with over 50 professionals, focusing heavily on insurance companies, captives, and carriers.

The keys to success

When asked about the key to RH CPAs’ success in the current market, Rives pointed to the firm’s adherence to five core values: being personable, thriving on being different, responsiveness, dependability, and maintaining a can-do attitude. “We hire, fire, train, accept clients, and fire clients based on those five things,” Rives emphasised, underscoring the firm’s commitment to these principles.

And looking at the current captive insurance industry, Rives is optimistic, noting that the industry is on an upward trajectory.

“The captive industry is growing, and it’s going to continue to do so,” he stated confidently. He explained that as companies’ balance sheets have grown, they have become more sophisticated in their approach to risk financing. “They don’t have to take risk, pay a premium, and give it to somebody else. They can stomach the risks themselves and know that there is a profit margin that the old-school, stodgy commercial insurance carrier was keeping.”

Rives predicts that over the next decade, the commercial carrier market will face adverse selection, as more companies choose to retain risks that they can manage internally. “I think we’re going to see more and more of that, and the captive market is going to continue to blossom as a result,” he added.

Watch the full interview here:

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.