VT. SETS RECORD FOR NEW CAPTIVES:

Howard Dean may be grabbing the headlines, but Vermont’s captive insurance division is also doing quite well. It licensed an all-time record of 77 new captives in 2003, eclipsing last year’s record of 70 and bringing the state’s total of licensed captives to 674. The new captives represent every form available in Vermont with the majority being pure captives. Nineteen new risk retention groups were formed, with industrial insureds, sponsored, and association captives rounding out the new 2003 licensees. Gross written premium in 2003 is expected to be $8.5 billion, up from $7 billion in 2002. Twenty of those captives were licensed in the last three months of the year, two were “redomesticated” from another state, and one pure captive converted to a risk retention group. Parent companies of the licensed captives came from hospitals, manufacturing sectors, financial services, religious organizations, hotels, sports teams, construction, airlines and fast food.