SRA 831b Admin

05/26/2026

Your CRM goes down for 48 hours. Your team can't access client data, process orders, or close deals. You call your insurance company. They tell you there's no coverage.

That's the reality Van Carlson, SRA's founder and CEO, broke down in his appearance on the Million Dollar Flip Flops podcast with Rodric.

Third-party business interruption, when a system you depend on but don't own fails, is one of the fastest-growing risks for small and mid-size businesses. And traditional insurance simply doesn't cover it.

Van walked through how business owners can take a more proactive approach to risk: identifying the gaps standard policies miss, setting aside tax-deferred dollars to self-insure through an 831(b) Plan, and building reserves that create real flexibility when disruption hits.

The key insight: risk mitigation should always come first. The tax benefit is the incentive, not the purpose.

❓ What's the biggest coverage gap you've seen catch a client off guard?

Podcast Episode · Million Dollar Flip Flops · April 24 · 21m

05/21/2026

On April 15, a federal court in Houston struck down the IRS's "listed transaction" designation for 831(b) micro captive insurance plans.

SRA 831(b) Admin was a co-plaintiff in the case.

We stepped into Drake Plastics Ltd. Co. & SRA 831(b) Admin v. Internal Revenue Service because small businesses were being swept into a one-size-fits-all enforcement approach that threatened legitimate risk management strategies. The court agreed, vacating the IRS's most punitive classification and rejecting the agency's attempt to broadly label 831(b) plans as presumptive tax shelters.

This matters for every advisor and business owner who has been watching this space. The "listed transaction" label carried fines up to $200,000, significant compliance burdens, and real reputational harm for businesses simply trying to cover risks their commercial insurers wouldn't.

As our president Dustin Carlson put it: "The court rejected the idea that you can call something a tax shelter first and prove it later."

The ruling leaves in place a lower-tier disclosure requirement, which is appropriate. Transparency and compliance have always been central to how we operate. What it removes is the presumption of wrongdoing that was never warranted for businesses using these plans responsibly.

For advisors: this is a turning point. Your clients using 831(b) plans to manage real, underinsured risks now have a clearer regulatory path forward.

Read the full announcement:

/PRNewswire/ -- SRA 831(b) Admin, a leading 831(b) Plan manager, is responding to a major federal court decision that came down on April 15 out of Houston that...

05/11/2026

More than 200 million birds affected nationwide. Six confirmed cases in Iowa this year alone. Bird flu isn't a hypothetical for poultry producers. It's an ongoing operational risk.

For Iowa farmers, who lead the nation in egg production, a single outbreak can trigger mandatory depopulation of entire flocks. That means immediate revenue loss, months of recovery, and ripple effects across workers, suppliers, and local economies.

Traditional insurance and government assistance help, but they rarely cover the full scope of losses tied to disease outbreaks. Prevention and vaccines are critical, but they only address part of the equation. The financial exposure remains.

That's why more producers are building 831(b) micro captive plans into their risk management programs. These plans allow farmers to set aside reserves in advance for exactly this kind of high-impact, low-frequency event, including death-loss coverage tied to avian influenza.

Instead of scrambling for emergency aid after the fact, producers who plan ahead have funds already reserved for the moment they need them most.

For advisors working with agricultural clients: this is a conversation worth having now, not after the next outbreak hits.

05/06/2026

Seats are limited ⛔ Denver advisors - this one's worth your Tuesday morning.

If you advise entrepreneurs, founders, or closely held businesses, 831(b) micro-captive strategies are worth understanding before the topic walks into your office.

In one hour, Peter Dawson, JD will break down:
🔹 Risk finance structure
🔹 Tax-deferred mechanics
🔹 Planning integration
🔹 Compliance guardrails

1 CE Credit | NASBA & NASAA Accredited | Breakfast Included Tuesday, May 19 | 8:30 AM | The Rally Hotel, Denver

Registration closes soon 👉

The presentation will begin promptly at 8:30 AM. Please plan to arrive by 8:15 AM to check in, network, and enjoy breakfast. CE issued through NASBA and NASAA. This course examines how a business can use an 831(b) micro captive as an alternative risk finance solution for Enterprise Risk Management a...

05/04/2026

One bridge. That's the bottleneck standing between Michigan's auto industry and the parts it needs to keep production moving.

Right now, the Ambassador Bridge is the only crossing for automotive components traveling between the U.S. and Ontario. Many of those parts cross the border seven or eight times during a single vehicle's manufacturing process before final assembly wraps up in Michigan.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge was supposed to relieve that pressure. Instead, ongoing delays are costing an estimated $6-7 million per week, and the ripple effects are hitting dealerships and suppliers hardest.

Here's the part advisors should pay attention to: when supply chains break down, traditional insurance rarely covers the fallout. Business interruption from political disruption, trade policy shifts, or logistics failures? Most commercial policies exclude those risks entirely.

That's why more dealerships and small businesses in the auto supply chain are turning to 831(b) micro captive plans. They're using them to set aside reserves for the specific risks their commercial carriers won't touch, like supply chain disruption, cost volatility, and inventory exposure tied to trade negotiations.

The risks facing small businesses aren't slowing down. The question is whether your clients have a plan for the ones their insurance won't cover.

The bridge bottleneck hurting America’s auto industry

04/27/2026

According to NAIC data, nearly 3x more cyber insurance claims are being closed without payment than are actually being paid out.

Meanwhile, the threat landscape is accelerating. Cloud-based attacks surged 136% and ransomware jumped 126% year over year.

So businesses are facing more attacks, filing more claims, and getting denied more often. That's not a coverage strategy. That's a gap.

For advisors: the question isn't just whether your clients have cyber insurance. It's what happens when the carrier says no.

An 831(b) micro captive plan can be structured to cover cyber-related losses that fall outside commercial policy definitions, giving your clients a second layer of protection they actually control.

The conversation with your clients shouldn't be "are you covered?" It should be "what happens when your coverage falls short?"

https://hubs.li/Q04cbdKB0

04/22/2026

Your insurance policy used to cover AI-related claims. In 2026 that silently changed.

If youre using AI in your business and haven’t looked at your general liability policy lately, this is worth the watch!

04/22/2026

Our president, Dustin Carlson, was featured in The Wall Street Journal this week discussing a growing blind spot in cyber insurance: act-of-war exclusions.

Here's the issue. Insurers are adopting broader language that allows them to deny cyber claims if there's any evidence a breach was carried out on behalf of a nation-state. Not just during a declared war. Any state-backed operation.

As Dustin told the Journal, most commercial cyber policies weren't designed to distinguish between criminal hacking groups and state-backed actors. But under the latest exclusion language, that distinction is exactly what determines whether a claim gets paid or denied.

This matters for every business owner and every advisor helping clients evaluate their risk exposure. The global average cost of a data breach hit $4.4 million last year. If your client's carrier denies coverage because the attacker had ties to a foreign government, who covers that loss?

This is precisely the kind of gap an 831(b) micro captive plan is designed to address. Risks that are real, measurable, and increasingly excluded by traditional carriers.

Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal:

Iran-linked hackers are targeting civilian businesses, raising the stakes for how insurers handle cyberwarfare claims.

04/20/2026

A dental practice loses $85,000+ in revenue after a hurricane knocks out power for weeks. A Midwest clinic eats a five-figure deductible after a break-in, and their commercial policy barely covers the basics.

These aren't hypotheticals. They're real examples from a recent Meditech Today article on why healthcare practices are turning to 831(b) micro captive plans.

Here's the takeaway for advisors: your healthcare clients likely have risk exposures that fall outside their commercial coverage, including business interruption from weather events, equipment breakdown, cyber liability, even regulatory defense costs.

An 831(b) plan doesn't replace their existing policies. It fills the gaps those policies were never designed to cover.

If you're advising healthcare practice owners, this is worth a closer look. The risks are real, the gaps are measurable, and the solution has been in the tax code since 1986.

As healthcare providers face mounting operational risks, from rising deductibles to increased risk exposure to events not covered by traditional insurance,

04/16/2026

Denver CPAs!

CPE is required, but strategic insight is optional. Make your CPE time count.

Our Denver session gives CPAs focused education on how 831(b) plans function within tax and risk mitigation frameworks.

You'll leave with:
> Structural understanding of 831(b) micro-captive insurance
> Tax treatment clarity
> Compliance awareness
> Language to use confidently in client conversations

1 Free CPE Credit | NASBA Accredited

Peter Dawson, JD | Tuesday, May 19 | The Rally Hotel, Denver | Breakfast Included

Register here: https://hubs.li/Q04cn64x0

The presentation will begin promptly at 8:30 AM. Please plan to arrive by 8:15 AM to check in, network, and enjoy breakfast. CE issued through NASBA and NASAA. This course examines how a business can use an 831(b) micro captive as an alternative risk finance solution for Enterprise Risk Management a...