Vermont’s captive division GWP nears $30bn

Vermont Captive Insurance Division has seen its gross written premium (GWP) continue to grow with a projected amount of $29.8 billion, up from $27.5 billion in 2013.

According to the division, this is already the highest GWP of any captive insurance domicile.

In 2014, Vermont licensed 16 new captives. The new captives were made up of ten pure captives, two sponsored, two special purpose financial insurers, one association, and one risk retention group. Two new captives were redomesticated from Bermuda and Delaware.

New captives were licensed in healthcare, insurance, financing, manufacturing, real estate, technology, religious institutions, and mining.

This brings overall total licenses to 1029 with 581 active captive insurance companies. The division said that an active pipeline of prospective captive insurance companies is already underway for 2015.

“2014 was another good year for captives in Vermont,” said Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin. “We welcome all of the new captives to the gold standard of domiciles.”

Dave Provost, Vermont’s deputy commissioner of captive insurance, added: “The quality of Vermont’s 2014 licensees continues to be outstanding. Vermont’s primary focus is licensing quality companies regardless of market conditions. Much of the activity across other jurisdictions is driven by small 831b companies which is not a core market for Vermont.”

Dan Towle, Vermont’s director of financial services, said: “The continued formation of hospitals and doctor’s groups setting up captives in Vermont has been a very positive trend that we expect to continue. Hospitals maintain a high interest in forming their captive on-shore and in Vermont.”