2022 Was Another Big Year for Captives in Vermont

The state of Vermont reports that it licensed 41 new captive insurance companies in 2022, meaning it is now home to 639 licensed captives, consisting of 608 active and 31 dormant captives.

The new captives, a form of a self-insurance, were licensed in 17 different industries, the top three industries being healthcare (7), construction (5), and real estate (4).

The growth in captive formations in 2022 is Vermont’s sixth highest year of growth in its more than 40-year history since passing captive-enabling legislation in 1981. Vermont remains the largest U.S. domicile for captive insurance.

At least four of Vermont’s new captives in 2022 were formed by companies with international roots, —including Canada (2), Mexico and Austria. T

Top formation types were pure (30), Sponsored (6), Agency (2) and Risk Retention Groups (2). Nearly 40 new cells were formed in 2022.

Vermont’s 59 sponsored cell captives currently host over 500 cells and separate accounts, in addition to the licensed captive companies.

“While we are happy to have another year of record growth, we never stop asking ourselves how we can be better,” said Sandy Bigglestone, deputy commissioner of Captive Insurance, Department of Financial Regulation (DFR). “We are actively looking into how to improve our statutes and internal processes to be most efficient and useful for businesses and look forward to providing the best service to them in the year ahead.”

Christine Brown, director of Captive Insurance, said that throughout the pandemic captive insurance has been a great tool for the health care industry, which has had emerging risks and fewer available insurance options.

In 2022, the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) held its first in-person annual conference in Burlington since 2019.

Vermont has licensed five new captives already in 2023 and has a total of 1288 captive insurance companies to date.

Topics Vermont