National Marina Insurance Association

It's an insurance company owned by its members instead of outside shareholders. A group of similar businesses — in this case, marinas and marine-service operators — pool their risk and share in the results, rather than paying premium into a traditional insurer's general pool.

With a traditional policy, your premium and any underwriting profit go to the carrier. With a group captive, you own a share of the company insuring you, your pricing is based on your own loss history rather than a broad market rate, and profits can come back to you as a member.

Yes. Membership requires an initial capital contribution — you're buying equity in the captive, not just a policy. This makes first-year cost higher than a traditional premium, but that equity is yours and it's the foundation for the dividends and control that follow.

Premiums are determined by an actuary based on your marina's own loss history and exposures, not a blended rate averaged across unrelated policyholders.

Not through pool size — a captive doesn't out-predict a large insurer's statistics. The improvement comes from three other mechanisms: underwriting selection, since only well-run marinas with strong safety records are admitted, so the group's true average risk starts lower than the broad market; reinsurance, since the captive transfers catastrophic, low-frequency losses to a reinsurer with a much larger book, so the group only carries the risk its own recent experience can reasonably predict; and aligned incentives, since members are equity owners who share in underwriting profit, so investing in loss control directly benefits them, unlike a traditional policy where safety spending mostly benefits the carrier.

If claims come in below projections, underwriting profit and investment income are distributed back to members — typically beginning as early as year five, once the program has enough claims history to distribute safely.

Yes. Membership runs on multi-year terms, and members may exit at renewal with advance written notice, as outlined in the captive's bylaws. It's not a same-day cancellation like an annual policy, but it's not a permanent commitment either.

Membership is available to qualifying marina, boatyard, and marine-service operations. Candidates go through an underwriting review of loss history, safety record, and operations before being prequalified.

Most marinas hear back within 10 business days of reaching out, after our underwriting team reviews your operation at no obligation.

Loss runs, policy declarations, and a general overview of your operations — vessel storage capacity, dockage, fuel handling, and safety procedures. This is what lets our actuary quote your premium based on your own numbers instead of a generic market rate.

This is exactly what reinsurance is for. Every member is protected against catastrophic or shock losses — a major storm event, for example — by reinsurance the captive purchases on behalf of the group. A single bad year doesn't fall entirely on the membership.

Yes. Every member gets an equal vote in captive governance, regardless of the size of their operation or premium. A large marina doesn't get more say than a small one.

The group captive replaces your property and general liability coverage. For other lines — like workers' compensation — you're not on your own either: the group uses its collective purchasing power to negotiate better pricing than you'd get your own in the traditional market.