The study, which polled employee benefit captives operating globally, found that 50 percent of those questioned use their captive vehicle to provide death and disability benefits as well as health care or medical benefits.

In addition, proactive risk management could be seen in the influence employee benefit captives have over pricing, with half (50 percent) indicating that their captive has full determination or significant influence over pricing rather than relying purely on local insurers’ underwriting.

Looking ahead, nearly half of the employee benefit captive users (47 percent) indicated that they are also considering a captive pension transaction, either in the next three to five years (41 percent) or within the next 12 months (6 percent).

“We continue to see a broadening use of employee benefit captives. Companies continue to explore further areas in which they can take on more of the risk and manage it internally in order to save money and mitigate risk,” Mark Cook, director at Willis Towers Watson, says in a statement.

Cook adds, “Also, many companies now recognize captives’ importance as a tool in benefit cost management, by identifying and addressing the key cost drivers. Successful employee benefit captives can stabilize and slow down benefit cost increases in an environment where medical costs continue to increase.”