an independently owned and capitalised insurance company, normally located offshore which will issue insurance policies for both conventional and unconventional risks

A specialized form of capitve insurance company operation designed for businesses that do not want to own a captive but want to obtain some of the advantages offered by captives. A rent-a-captive is formed by a group of investors and operated as an income-producing business. Insureds who wish to participate "rent" space in the captive instead of setting up and capitalizing their own captive insurance company.

Under these programs, the policyholder is insured by the Captive without owning, or at least, without voting control of the Captive. The Captive facility "rents" its capital, surplus, and license to the policyholder and usually provides administrative services, reinsurance, and/or an admitted fronting company. A Rent-a-Captive can be structured as a protected cell, which is the legal segregation of the accounts of each program from the liabilities of every other program and those of the Rent-a-Captive itself.