Below are the questions business owners most often ask about privately owned insurance companies (POIC) and The Latitude Plan. For guidance specific to your business, book a complimentary discovery consultation — and always confirm tax and legal questions with a licensed CPA or attorney.
With traditional insurance, you pay premiums to an outside company and never see that money again — even if you never file a claim. With private insurance, your business pays premiums to an unrelated third-party carrier, which then reinsures a portion of that risk and premium back to an insurance company you own. Net of any claims, you participate in the underwriting profit. It turns a recurring sunk cost into a long-term asset.
They share the same roots — the term “captive insurance” dates to the 1950s, with the first offshore captives formed in Bermuda in the 1960s. The Latitude Plan is a modern, domestically domiciled evolution of that concept: structured through U.S. tribal jurisdiction rather than offshore, with no micro-captive designation. It also does not use the 831(b) election commonly associated with micro-captives — an election some operators have misused, which has consequently drawn IRS scrutiny.
The Latitude Plan is Reinsurance Specialties’ branded privately owned insurance company (POIC) structure, refined over several decades. It operates as an 831(a)-designated POIC that files annual federal tax returns and is backed by a team of licensed CPAs, attorneys, and actuaries. It’s designed to cover your business’s uninsured and under-insured risks while converting premiums into company-controlled assets.
The Latitude Plan is built for businesses generating between $1 million and $1 billion in annual gross revenue. If your business falls within that range and carries uninsured or under-insured risk, it’s worth exploring whether a POIC is a fit — which a discovery consultation will confirm.
High-risk and high-margin industries are ideal, but the range is broad. Clients include medical and dental practices, law firms, CPA firms, construction, agriculture, oil and gas, HVAC, manufacturing, retail, home builders, hospitality, and professional services. If your business grosses $1 million or more a year, the structure likely applies regardless of industry.
Yes. Publicly traded companies, businesses with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), and companies heavily leveraged by private equity or outside investors whose agreements are structured around EBITDA tend to be more complicated fits for a POIC platform.
Yes, it’s legal. The Latitude Plan is an 831(a)-designated POIC that files annual federal tax returns, follows IRS guidelines, and is governed under tribal jurisdiction. It is specifically designed to exclude the elements that draw IRS scrutiny — no offshore accounts, no risk pooling, no trust agreements, and no micro-captive designation. This is general information, not legal advice; consult licensed counsel about your specific situation.
The IRS has scrutinized 831(b) micro-captives for abusive tax sheltering. The Latitude Plan operates under an 831(a) designation, avoids the structural elements associated with micro-captive abuse, and is built around a formal actuarial assessment of real, identifiable business risk — not artificial premium inflation.
The Latitude Plan is domiciled within a U.S. sovereign tribal jurisdiction — rooted in the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 — rather than a U.S. state or an offshore territory. This keeps the structure fully domestic while operating outside state-level insurance regulation. The insurance company is formed as a C-corporation, follows IRS guidelines, and files federal tax returns annually.
Many private insurance models rely on offshore entities, pool risk with unrelated businesses, or are structured as micro-captives that can attract IRS scrutiny. The Latitude Plan uses a domestically domiciled, tribally regulated insurance company backed by licensed CPAs, attorneys, and actuaries — with no offshore exposure, no risk pooling, no trust agreements, and no outside administrators or managers.
You do. The company is formed as a C-corporation, you determine who owns its shares, and you control the entity, its capital, and its decisions. On claims, you decide if and when to file. The third-party insurance carrier reviews and approves or denies the claim and pays approved claims, then seeks reimbursement from your POIC — so you retain control of the process rather than waiting on an outside insurer.
Timelines vary with your business’s complexity, but four to six weeks is a good rule of thumb. The first step is a complimentary discovery consultation — a short, no-obligation conversation to determine fit and walk through how the structure would apply to your business.
No. There are no long-term contracts. The reinsurance treaty can be cancelled at any time with written notice. That said, because the structure tends to compound in value over time, clients keep it in place for an average of roughly 15 years.
Email: info@reinsurancespecialties.com
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