South Carolina Code of Laws
Chapter 90 - Captive Insurance Companies
Section 38-90-210. Formation of sponsored captive insurance company; establishing protected cells.

(A) One or more sponsors may form a sponsored captive insurance company under this chapter.
(B) A sponsored captive insurance company formed or licensed under this chapter may establish and maintain one or more protected cells to insure risks of one or more participants, subject to the following conditions:
(1) the shareholders of a sponsored captive insurance company must be limited to its participants and sponsors;
(2) each protected cell must be accounted for separately on the books and records of the sponsored captive insurance company to reflect the participants of the protected cell, the financial condition and results of operations of the protected cell, net income or loss, dividends or other distributions to participants, and other factors may be provided in the participant contract or required by the director;
(3) the assets of a protected cell must not be chargeable with liabilities arising out of any other insurance business the sponsored captive insurance company may conduct;
(4) no sale, exchange, or other transfer of assets may be made by the sponsored captive insurance company between or among any of its protected cells without the consent of the protected cells;
(5) no sale, exchange, transfer of assets, dividend, or distribution may be made from a protected cell to a sponsor or participant without the director's approval and in no event may the approval be given if the sale, exchange, transfer, dividend, or distribution would result in insolvency or impairment with respect to a protected cell;
(6) a sponsored captive insurance company annually shall file with the director financial reports the director requires, which shall include, but are not limited to, accounting statements detailing the financial experience of each protected cell;
(7) a sponsored captive insurance company shall notify the director in writing within ten business days of a protected cell that is insolvent or otherwise unable to meet its claim or expense obligations;
(8) no participant contract shall take effect without the director's approval, and the addition of each new protected cell and withdrawal of any participant of any existing protected cell constitutes a change in the business plan requiring the director's approval.
(C) The name of a sponsored captive insurance company shall include the words "Sponsored Captive" or the abbreviation "SC". Any captive insurance company or protected cell formed prior to July 31, 2013, may not be required to change its name to comply with the provisions of this subsection.
(D) A sponsored captive insurance company may establish one or more protected cells with the prior approval of the director of a plan of operation or amendments submitted by the sponsored captive insurance company with respect to each protected cell. Upon the approval of the director of the plan of operation, which shall include, but is not limited to, the specific business objectives and investment guidelines of the protected cell, the sponsored captive insurance company, in accordance with the approved plan of operation, may attribute to the protected cell insurance obligations with respect to its insurance business and assets to fund the obligations. The sponsored captive insurance company shall transfer all assets attributable to a protected cell to one or more separately established and identified protected cell accounts bearing the name or designation of that protected cell. Protected cell assets must be held in the protected cell accounts for the purpose of satisfying the obligations of that protected cell.
(E) All attributions of assets and liabilities between a protected cell and the general account must be in accordance with the plan of operation approved by the director. No other attribution of assets or liabilities may be made by a sponsored captive insurance company between the sponsored captive insurance company's general account and its protected cells.
(F) A sponsored captive insurance company shall establish administrative and accounting procedures necessary to properly identify the one or more protected cells of the sponsored captive insurance company and the protected cell assets and protected cell liabilities attributable to the protected cells. The directors of a sponsored captive insurance company shall keep protected cell assets and protected cell liabilities:
(1) separate and separately identifiable from the assets and liabilities of the sponsored captive insurance company's general account; and
(2) attributable to one protected cell separate and separately identifiable from protected cell assets and protected cell liabilities attributable to other protected cells.
(G) When establishing a protected cell, the sponsored captive insurance company shall attribute to the protected cell assets with a value at least equal to the reserves and other insurance liabilities attributed to that protected cell.
HISTORY: 2000 Act No. 331, Section 1; 2014 Act No. 282 (S.909), Section 19, eff June 10, 2014; 2018 Act No. 251 (H.4675), Section 1, eff May 18, 2018.
Effect of Amendment
2014 Act No. 282, Section 19, in subsection (B)(2), inserted "participants of the protected cell, the"; and added subsections (C) through (G).
2018 Act No. 251, Section 1, in (B)(8), substituted "director's approval" for "director's prior written approval" in two places; in (D), in the first and second sentences, substituted "prior approval of the director" for "prior written approval of the director"; in (F), deleted the undesignated paragraph following (2), which related to the remedy of tracing.

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