☰A branch captive is a unit of an existing foreign captive that is licensed to operate in another jurisdiction, most commonly a US branch of an offshore captive. The branch is not a separate company; it is the same insurer, admitted to write specific business where the branch is licensed, with its own local filings and its own designated assets.
The classic use is employee benefits. Certain US benefit programs must be written by a US-licensed insurer, so an offshore captive establishes a US branch to write that business directly while the rest of the program stays where it is. A branch spares the owner from forming and capitalizing a second standalone captive, at the price of maintaining two regulatory relationships for one company.