Lake Champlain, Burlington, Vermont

Jeff Johnson, from the captive law firm of Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer PC here in Burlington, sent me a fun fact a little a while ago:  Vermont captives’ gross written premium (GWP) as a whole exceeds the gross written premium of Hannover Re, the world’s third largest reinsurance company.

According to Best’s latest list of ‘Top 50 Reinsurers by Gross Written Premium’ from July 2014 (based on 2012 data), Munich Re ranks first with $37.25 billion in GWP, then Swiss Re with $31.72 billion. Vermont captives would rank third with $26.7 billion GWP based on 2012 data! Forget Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway at just over $15 billion.

Now, I know captives are not reinsurance companies, but in a way it is not as much an apples to oranges comparison as you may think.  Vermont as an entity is highly regarded as a place to offset ones’ risk with competent managers and regulators. The confidence and value the business and non-profit world see in Vermont is similar to how they see reinsurers like Munich Re and Swiss Re – and we share mountains to boot!  Swiss Re hears footsteps….

Thank you all very much, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Richard Smith
VCIA President