Hart David Carson LLP is a global corporate and private-capital law boutique whose insurance and reinsurance practice advises carriers, captives, reinsurers, and risk-capital sponsors on formation and licensing, reinsurance and retrocession, insurance-linked securities, run-off, and solvency and cross-border structuring, from a Chicago base with reach across London, Dubai, and a partner network on five continents. For carriers, captives, reinsurers, and the sponsors who move risk into the capital markets, that means formation and licensing, reinsurance and retrocession, insurance-linked securities, run-off, and the solvency and cross-border structuring that hold a program together.
Firm facts · ReachA corporate and private-capital boutique with international reach: a principal office in Chicago, a second office in Oakbrook Terrace, offices in London and Dubai through partner firms, meeting locations by appointment in seven further US cities, and a partner network across ~51 jurisdictions on five continents. Founded 2013.
An insurer cannot file for bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Code excludes it, so a failed carrier is wound up by its domiciliary regulator in a state receivership, under rules that put policyholders ahead of general creditors. Insurance law is arranged around that fact: the capital a carrier must hold, the credit it may take for reinsurance, and the approval it needs before anyone acquires control of it.
Ten percent of a US insurer's voting stock is presumptive control, and control changes hands only with the domiciliary commissioner's prior approval. A cedent takes balance-sheet credit for reinsurance only if the reinsurer is licensed or accredited in the cedent's state, qualifies under a reciprocal-jurisdiction regime, or posts collateral in trust. The transfer must carry real insurance risk; the usual test, a ten percent chance of a ten percent loss, is an accounting convention, not a statute.
We form, capitalize, and reinsure carriers and captives with those rules on the table, and bring the firm's structured-finance practice to catastrophe bonds, where insurance meets the capital markets. We have also represented clients in matters before the SEC and the IRS.
The firm's own insurance practice, covering insurer formation and licensing, captive structuring, reinsurance and retrocession, run-off and portfolio transfers, regulatory and solvency work, insurance M&A, and coverage disputes.
Explore →Special-purpose insurers and transformers, notes programs, collateral and trigger mechanics, and the true-sale and ratings work a cat-bond transaction depends on. This is the capital-markets side of insurance-linked securities.
Explore →Capitalizing and financing carriers and holding structures, including acquisition and holding-company finance, security and intercreditor terms, and the regulatory-capital questions that surround a financed insurance group.
Explore →Holding-company structuring, entity selection, and the acquisitions, renewal-rights deals, and reorganizations an insurance group carries out as it grows, consolidates, or exits a line of business.
Explore →The legacy and distressed end of the sector, where run-off, the transfer of discontinued portfolios, and the schemes, plans, and creditor work move a closed book toward finality.
Explore →Coverage disputes, reinsurance recoveries, and the contested claims that arrive at a loss, handled with the formation and regulatory teams that drafted the program.
Explore →A major center for reinsurance, specialty carriers, and insurance-linked securities, used where a sophisticated insurance regulator and a deep risk-capital market fit the strategy.
Bermuda →A widely used domicile for captives and special-purpose insurers, often paired with a fund or holding structure where the risk capital and the investors are coordinated together.
Cayman Islands →An established European captive and insurance domicile, used for self-insurance programs and protected-cell structures where a recognized regime outside the EU fits the group.
Guernsey →Our global-reach map sets out the full set of onshore and offshore centers we coordinate through, with local counsel where a domestic insurance license or filing is required.
Global reach →Establishing and licensing insurers, reinsurers, and captives in the domicile that fits the line of business, with the capital and class-of-license structure the regime requires.
Drafting and negotiating reinsurance and retrocession arrangements, structured so the risk transfer is real and the recovery holds up when a loss is paid.
Insurance-linked securities and cat bonds, from the special-purpose insurer to the notes, collateral, and trigger mechanics, bringing the insurance and structured-finance sides together in one transaction.
Capital and solvency compliance, supervisory engagement, and the ongoing regulatory obligations that follow a carrier from launch through the life of the entity.
Releasing capital from legacy and discontinued exposure through loss-portfolio transfers, adverse-development covers, and the approvals a portfolio transfer requires.
Acquisitions, renewal-rights deals, and reorganizations of insurance groups, and coverage and reinsurance disputes when wording is tested at the loss.
The regime is chosen before the entity exists. Class of license, capital and solvency standard, and regulator posture are weighed across Bermuda, Cayman, Guernsey, and the US states, and then the business plan, actuarial support, and licensing application are drafted to survive the regulator's first hard read.
The carrier or captive is capitalized against its solvency calculation and the book is written. Policy forms, treaty and retrocession wording, and collateral terms are drafted in the knowledge that every clause will one day be read against a loss.
Risk moves off the balance sheet through quota shares and excess-of-loss treaties, or through a special-purpose insurer issuing catastrophe notes to investors. The transfer has to be real for the capital and accounting credit to hold.
The promise is tested. Claims and coverage positions are managed as wording questions, and legacy books are closed out through loss-portfolio transfers and adverse-development covers, with the regulatory approvals and policyholder-protection steps that let trapped capital go home.
A policy is a promise priced in advance, and the law's whole job is making sure it can still be kept on the worst day.
Hart David Carson LLP acts for insurers and reinsurers across commercial and specialty lines, for corporates and groups forming captives to retain their own risk, for sponsors and investors in insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds, and for the funds and holding companies that own or capitalize carriers. The common thread is regulated risk capital, where licensing, solvency, contract wording, and structure all have to agree with one another.
Because the regulator, the capital rule, and the tax position all come with it. Bermuda licenses commercial reinsurers by class under a regime the European Union has recognized as equivalent to Solvency II since 2016, which is much of why third-party reinsurance capital concentrates there, and it began taxing large multinational groups at 15 percent in 2025. The Cayman Islands and Guernsey license captives and cell companies quickly for self-insurance and single-parent programs. A US admitted carrier answers to its domiciliary state and to every state it writes in. The choice is made once, against the line of business and where the cedents and investors sit, and we coordinate with local counsel on the license itself.
Yes. ILS and catastrophe bonds sit where insurance meets the capital markets. A typical transaction has a special-purpose insurer or transformer, a reinsurance or retrocession agreement, and notes placed with investors, with the collateral and trigger mechanics holding it together. We draw on the firm's structured-finance and securitization practice for the SPV, notes, and collateral side and on its insurance practice for the risk-transfer and regulatory side, so the transaction works as a whole.
It depends on the domicile and the activity. Insurance is supervised primarily by the regulator of the jurisdiction where the carrier or vehicle is licensed, alongside state insurance departments for US-admitted business and, on the capital-markets and tax side, authorities such as the SEC and the IRS where a securities offering or tax structure is involved. We help clients identify which frameworks apply and represent clients in matters before the SEC and the IRS where a federal regulator is involved.
Yes. Not every book of business is written to be held forever. We advise on run-off and the transfer of legacy or discontinued portfolios, including loss-portfolio transfers, adverse-development covers, and the regulatory approvals and policyholder-protection steps a portfolio transfer requires, so capital tied up in legacy exposure can be released in a way that holds up with the regulator and the counterparty. Where a closed book needs a path to finality, we draw on the firm's restructuring and insolvency team.
The firm's insurance-linked-securities work was built from two practices it already had, insurance and structured finance, and the instrument rewards the pairing. A catastrophe bond is a special-purpose insurer that sells notes to qualified institutional buyers, holds the proceeds in a collateral trust invested in Treasury money-market funds, and writes a reinsurance contract back to the sponsor. The trigger, whether indemnity, industry loss, or parametric, decides how fast the money moves and how much basis risk the sponsor keeps. Formation, reinsurance, and solvency work are long settled; the ILS corner keeps changing, and we treat it as the newer field it is.
Yes, and the layers have to be read together because each regulator sees only its own. A US cedent gets no credit for reinsurance ceded to an unlicensed Bermuda or Cayman reinsurer unless the reinsurer qualifies as a reciprocal-jurisdiction or certified reinsurer or collateral sits in a US trust, so the treaty and the trust agreement are drafted as one document in two parts. A holding company in one country with a carrier in another is an insurance holding system, which means an annual enterprise-risk report to the lead state and prior notice of agreements between affiliates. We coordinate those layers as a whole and work with locally admitted counsel wherever a license or filing is required.
Asset managers, funds, and banks, regulated capital that shares the structuring, solvency, and cross-border questions of the insurance world.
Explore →Sponsors and offices that own, capitalize, or acquire carriers and risk-capital vehicles, through buyouts, fund formation, and direct deals in the insurance space.
Explore →Asset-backed risk and the captives, programs, and finance that property portfolios depend on, where insurance meets the real-asset world.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
One partner is accountable for the whole matter, and you have that partner's direct line. Chicago, London, and Dubai work to the same standard.