The International Center for Captive Insurance Education (ICCIE) has announced that Gregory Schaefer, president and CEO of Schaefer Enterprises, and Paul Byrne, AINS, have achieved ACI designation, which stands for Associate in Captive Insurance.
ICCIE’s mission is to be the premier provider of captive insurance education and to offer the pre-eminent professional designation in captive insurance. The ACI is the recognized designation of captive insurance professionals around the world. During a rigorous course of study, students must complete seven core courses (including their respective post-course exams).
“Earning ACI designation reflects an important level of expertise and service that we can provide to our clients who can benefit from a captive insurance model,” Schaefer said. Captive insurance, which is also known as self-insurance, can be a key strategy for curbing rampant insurance costs.” This approach enables employers to exert a higher level of control over plan design than traditional fully insured plans typically allow,” Schaefer continued.
Mr. Byrne began his career in financial services before transitioning into insurance. In addition to Captive Insurance, he specializes in Cyber Insurance and Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) and helps his clients navigate the best insurance coverage options for their business. Byrne is a graduate of George Washington University. Mr. Schaefer has received numerous industry awards and recognition. His company, Schaefer Enterprises, was recognized in 2015 and 2016 as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America by Inc. magazine and was listed as one of the top healthcare insurance brokers by Insurance Business America (IBA) in 2016. He was also named a SmartCEO 2016 Future 50 Award Winner, which recognizes a handful of chief executives in the region whose companies have demonstrated remarkably consistent growth and performance.
Captive Insurance offers non-insurance companies the opportunity to address unique risk management needs by creating their own insurance vehicles while offering key benefits such as tax deductible premiums, asset protection, and tax efficiencies that are favorable to both the accumulation of premiums and distributions to the parent company.
Founded in 2004, ICCIE is the only comprehensive captive insurance education program in North America. The curriculum includes an introduction to alternative risk financing mechanisms, understanding risk and risk retention mechanisms, reinsurance and other risk transfer mechanisms, predicting risk and an introduction to actuarial science, forming and operating a captive, business ethics in the captive insurance industry and investment basics for captives.
Schaefer Enterprises is a Manhattan-based insurance agency specializing in all aspects of business, personal and program insurance. In addition to offering insurance products for business, construction insurance, employee benefits, health insurance and medical malpractice insurance, Schaefer offers a wide selection of unique programs to suit the needs of specialized businesses, such as industry-specific coverage for urgent care centers, food and supermarkets, and non-profit insurance.
