Canadian Businesses Find New, Profitable Opportunity in TIEA

NEW YORK, September 8, 2011 -

- Self-Insuring in Bermuda Means Returning Profits Tax-Free to Canada

The Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between Canada and Bermuda took effect on July 1, creating for Canadian companies a benefit previously unavailable-precisely, the fact that Bermuda-earned dividends of foreign affiliates based in Bermuda that are paid to Canadian parent companies are now exempt from Canadian taxes. And this, according to Steve Nordstrom, CEO of Universal Risk Intermediaries, Inc. (unirisk.com), is a significant business opportunity for Canadian companies and very good news for the Canadian economy.

“Businesses can lower their costs when they self-insure, and dividends returned to Canada tax-free mean more money to invest in hiring and expansion,” he says.

Nordstrom, an insurance veteran specializing in alternative risk or self-insurance, programs for more than 30 years, is also CEO of Bermuda based Capital Security Ltd in Bermuda.  His companies have designed and implemented hundreds of millions of dollars of these types of programs, in Bermuda, since 1991. “Bermuda is the premier market for companies that want to self-insure using their own insurance companies. It is the most mature insurance market of its type in the world, and recently, Bermudan banks have become subject to Solvency II - which plainly stated, means that one’s money is safe there.”

Profitable self-insurance can depend on effective advice and support from the start; even after the subsidiary business is successfully established, there are accounting, financial and tax issues to be managed. “When a client seeks to capture the underwriting profits and investment income normally gained by an insurer, UniRisk can provide the right programs in the most tax-efficient manner,” Nordstrom says. “We work with agents, national brokers, reinsurance intermediaries, issuing carriers and others. There is virtually no risk-sharing program that UniRisk cannot undertake.”

UniRisk’s Bermuda operation provides the following services and products:

• Captive formation and management
• Rent-a-captive programs
• New product lines and consulting
• Programs for all classes of insurance
• Collateral Alternative (LOC) programs
• Deductible reimbursement policies
• Direct policies and certificates of insurance
• Accounting, financial and banking services

UNIVERSAL RISK INTERMEDIARIES

Contact: Steven C. Nordstrom
Canadian brokers, risk managers, CEOs and CFOs can contact UniRisk at +1-917-716-4269 or by email SteveNordstrom@unirisk.com Find the company online at www.unirisk.com.

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