Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays to all of the VCIA family! It was another great year for captives in Vermont, and next year portends to be even better for the industry as a whole.

As I have talked to many of VCIA’s members in the course of the past month or so, “busy” seems to be the word that encapsulates the tone. I think that has been due to two main factors: the increasing sophistication of risk managers in smaller and medium-sized organizations, and the beginnings of a hardening insurance marketplace.

Vermont is set to add another 20+ captives to its stable of over 1000 licenses by year’s end, notwithstanding the competition, due in large part to Dave Provost and his team at DFR’s continued steadfast regulation, Ian Davis’ doggedness in pursuing captive leads, and captive service providers, who continue to recognize Vermont as the premier captive insurance domicile! Overall VCIA membership has increased 2% this year with 446 member organizations thanks to Janice Valgoi and her tireless work in adding to our roles.

I want to say thank you to VCIA’s Board of Directors for all their support and guidance over the past year to the association. I want to especially thank Wilda Seymour of Franklin Casualty Insurance Company RRG for her contribution as board chair starting in October of 2018, and welcome back Jan Klodowski of Agrisurance Inc. as our chair as of this past October.  Longtime captive expert attorney extraordinaire, Stephanie Mapes of Paul Frank + Collins, came on as our vice-chair.  Many thanks to Andrew Baillie of AES Global Insurance Company, independent consultant Donna Blair, Lawrence Cook of Sedgwick, Dennis Silvia of Cedar Consulting, Anne Marie Towle of Hylant, and Derick White of SRS. And on behalf of the staff, I would also like to welcome Tracy Hassett of EdHealth and Jason Palmer of Willis Towers Watson to the board.

We continue our strong focus on events and on legislative and regulatory issues on behalf of our members. Many thanks to Jim McIntyre, and his partner Chrys Lemon, in Washington and Jamie Feehan in Vermont for their wonderful service to VCIA.   And my great thanks to the VCIA staff! Without their hard work, smarts and enthusiasm, we would not be able to accomplish any of the wonderful things we do for our members.  Thank you to Diane Leach, Elizabeth Halpern, Peggy Companion, Janice Valgoi, Dave Rapuano and Megan Precourt – you are all terrific!

Most of all, thank you for all your support and another great year!

Rich Smith
VCIA President