I grew up as a kid during WWII, and we always planted a “Victory Garden” in back yard, behind Rose hedge. It was a goodly sized plot of ground, probably 30 feet by 40 feet, and over years I became intimately acquainted with every spade full of dirt there.

Why? Well, because it was my job every spring from time I was old enough to step on a shovel and plunge it into ground to spade up that garden plot and ready it for planting. And I had to go into chicken coop and get chicken manure and spread it on ground and spade it in, also. I started doing this by about 1941, when I was 5.

And over by house there grew this veritable jungle of weeds. But, when you broke off a leaf and chewed it up it tasted pretty good. It was mint. Mint grows wild, in one form or another, pretty much everywhere. You may have some growing wild in your back yard right now? Some people call this an herb. I simply call it “food”. It’s something we learned to eat and enjoy. And I learned how, when walking through woods, to identify licorice root – a fern, usually growing on old dead trees – and enjoy chewing on it. Also probably classified as an herb, but I simply called it a “food”.

Every year Mom did canning. She would can tomatoes out of garden, carrots and peas out of garden. And she would can fruit for winter, some as whole fruit (peaches and pears – apples went into applesauce and apple jelly). She canned mostly in quart jars for foods, and in pint jars for jams and jellies. Apple jelly was special, though, canned in half-pint jars and it always had a leaf from wild mint in back yard on top of jelly in every jar. And sometimes, as a special treat, it might contain a piece of licorice root for flavor.

A MILLION DOLLAR CASH ADVANTAGE is exactly what a captive might mean to a surgeon at beginning of a career. For a doctor well into a life's work, savings that might be achieved by use of a captive could well determine quality and point of retirement. How much? Without loss of one penny set aside in loss reserves for risk of professional liability, captive owners save at least one third or more of their cost for liability insurance.

JUST WHAT IS A CAPTIVE?

A Captive is a privately held insurance company formed for sole purpose of providing insurance to that company's owners. A captive is a corporation qualified by governmental authority to operate as an insurance company for limited purposes. A captive is administered in same manner as any other corporation in conduct of business.

It is important to note that although insurance affairs are usually contracted to experienced trades people for day to day operations, captive's owners should always maintain total control of all business decisions as well as captive's money accounts.

HOW DO CAPTIVES SAVE MONEY?

An insurance company reserve account is money set aside from premium dollars to pay future claims. Yet, this money is only a portion of premium dollars you pay. Added to funds for loss reserves are sales commissions, advertising and marketing expense and cost of company's administration overhead as well as an allowance for profit. Therefore as little as 55 or 60% of premium dollars you pay are actually set aside for purpose you pay them, to pay for future liability claims. A Captive will set aside same amount of money into reserves as a commercial insurance company. However, captive will eliminate most, though not all of commercial insurance company's expenses.

OTHER REASONS FOR FORMING A CAPTIVE:

The advantages of owning a Captive are well known to American industry and not for profit institutions. Only recently, due to legislative reforms, have captives become available to individuals and small groups. The various reasons for forming captives include:

Over a period of time, loss reserves become a sizable asset. The income from investment of those assets directly benefits shareholders of commercial companies. Owning company yourself means you benefit from investment of loss reserves.