Vermont Licensed 33 New Captive Insurers in 2015

Vermont licensed 33 new captive insurance companies in 2015, according to data released by the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation.

2015’s new licensees bring Vermont’s overall total licenses to 1,062 with 588 active captive insurers.

Vermont is the largest captive domicile in the U.S. and the third-largest in the world.

The new captives in 2015 were made up of 12 pure captives, seven risk retention groups, seven sponsored captives, four special purpose financial insurers, two industrial insured captives, and one association captive.

There were 11 “redomestications,” which is when an existing captive moves from another domicile to Vermont. That is the largest number ever to occur in a single year in Vermont. There were three redomestications each from South Carolina and Arizona, two from Bermuda, and one each from Cayman Islands, Nevada and Kentucky. Six of the 11 redomestications to Vermont were by risk retention groups.

Vermont officials said growth in 2015 was up significantly from 2014 when 16 companies were licensed. Officials also said growth is impressive especially when considering the added competition by other U.S. states.

Dan Towle, Vermont’s Director of Financial Services, said it’s encouraging that a record number of captives redomesticated to Vermont last year.

“Companies that have an established captive insurance company are often among the most knowledgeable and sophisticated when it comes to doing proper due-diligence on domicile selection,” Towle said.

New captives were licensed in industries including insurance, healthcare, construction, real estate, professional services, education, transportation, agriculture and retail. Officials said the strong diversity of licenses was highlighted with seven in the healthcare sector.

“The continued formation of hospitals and doctors’ groups setting up captives in Vermont has been a very positive trend that we expect to continue,” said Towle.