Another successful VCIA Legislative Day this week at Vermont’s State House in bustling Montpelier. Our members, including many who came in from afar, got to hear from Vermont’s Lt. Governor, David Zuckerman, as well as Vermont’s Commissioner of Financial Regulation Mike Pieciak at our luncheon, and then later in the day from the Speaker of the House, Mitzi Johnson, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Tim Ashe, and finally from House Minority Leader Patty McCoy. Even though they represent different parties under the Gold Dome, what they do have in common is their unwavering support of the captive insurance industry in Vermont

At our lunch we heard from Phil Susmann, President of Norwich University which hosts the NU Applied Research Institutes (NUARI). Just a few miles south of Montpelier, NUARI serves the national public interest through the study of critical national issues and the development of related educational and training programs. Phil and his NUARI colleagues have been instrumental in helping U.S. banks and financial firms test and harden their resiliency against major cyber events.  NUARI’s simulation tools enable hundreds of players across the country—from broker-dealers, clearing firms, and stock exchanges to U.S. banks, regulators, and law enforcement agencies—to test themselves against lifelike simulated cyberattacks. The exercise has become the largest single-day event of its kind for the industry.

VCIA testified before House Commerce and Senate Finance in the afternoon. VCIA board member Heather McClure knocked it out of the park with her testimony connecting work of the Vermont legislature in support of captive insurance with patient lives at Oklahoma University Medical Center, where their APIC captive supports advances in patient care. Members of the two committees were visibly moved by the impact of her testimony!

Finally, for the first time we held our reception for legislators in the venerable Cedar Creek Room at the State House. And this is where the story of Baldy Smith comes in, for in the Cedar Creek Room hangs a recently acquired painting of the Civil War general. VCIA’s Diane Leach wondered if Baldy is an ancestor of mine, and although the likeness is uncanny, as far as I know Baldy is from a different branch of the Right Honorable Smith Family.

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