Left to right: VCIA President Rich Smith, Governor Phil Scott, VCIA members

As I wrote about in last week’s blog, VCIA hosted our annual Member’s Legislative Day in Vermont’s state capital, Montpelier, yesterday and it was a big success!

Our members, including many who came in from afar, got to hear from Vermont’s new Governor, Phil Scott, at our luncheon, and then later in the day from the new Speaker of the House, Mitzi Johnson, the new President of the Senate, Tim Ashe, and finally from the new Lt. Governor, David Zuckerman. The interesting thing to me is we have a group of state leaders with a wide variety of backgrounds:

• a Republican Governor who was a construction company owner and stock car racer;
• a Progressive Lt. Governor who is an organic vegetable farmer;
• a Democrat/Progressive Senate President who is a non-profit housing developer;
• and a Democrat Speaker who also does non-profit work and works on a vegetable farm (go figure).

What they do have in common besides their unwavering support of the captive insurance industry in Vermont, is their willingness to work with each other across party lines to do what’s best for our small state – nice model for the rest of the country, don’t you think?

Besides the meetings with the State’s policy leaders, VCIA testified before House Commerce and Senate Finance on the captive bill that was introduced last week and to provide an overview of VCIA and the captive industry. Joining me was VCIA’s board vice chair, Jan Klodowski, who is vice president for Agri-Services Agency, LLC, a subsidiary of Dairy Farmers of America. Jan is responsible for developing and administering their successful Captive/Alternative Risk Financing Programs and manages Agrisurance Inc. which is a Group Captive specializing in the agricultural industry.  Jan did a great job of taking the vague concept of captive insurance and making it relatable by connecting it with the protection of farmers across Vermont and most of the US.

And lastly, a huge shout out to Dave Provost, Len Crouse and Ed Meehan’s family (Ed was given the award posthumously) All three were recently installed as part of the first inductees into Captive Review’s newly formed Captive Hall of Fame.  The Vermont legislature did a surprise proclamation honoring all three in the House chamber yesterday. It was truly terrific to see a standing ovation in the Vermont House of Representatives for Len and Dave who were in the gallery. Congratulations!

For a copy of the captive bill, please go to:
http://www.vcia.com/Portals/0/Files/Board/FullCaptiveBill2017.pdf

Photos will be posted on the VCIA site early next week!

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

Rich Smith
VCIA President