Category Archives: Dave Provost

A Captive Industry Icon Announces His Retirement

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The State of Vermont’s Deputy Commissioner of the Captive Insurance Division is hanging up his gloves. Dave Provost leaves a permanent print on the robust infrastructure for domiciled captives in the Green Mountain State.

This week Vermont Captive Insurance set the captive world abuzz with a press release announcing Dave Provost’s retirement at the end of the summer. The Governor of Vermont Phil Scott could not sing Dave’s praise any higher by thanking him for “his immeasurable contribution to Vermonters and businesses around the world.” The Governor did pledge as well that Dave’s replacement would build on the “Gold Standard” for captives that Dave has helped create.

If you’ve been on the fence for registering for The VCIA Annual Conference August 8-11 in Burlington, Vermont, Dave’s news should get you over to attend. The conference will be a celebration of sorts for his career, and of course his insights during his “Hot Topics” on the last day of the conference is now simply a must see. Access Conference Registration here.

Mr. Captive himself, Dave Provost. Catch his last “Hot Topics” session at our Annual Conference this year.

I’m only three months on the job as VCIA’s President, and so it makes sense that I should be at the end of the line when it comes to reflecting on Dave Provost’s remarkable captive career. Nevertheless, as short as our relationship has been, we do make for a quick repartee pairing; it was only this Wednesday, during VCIA’s Spring Mixer, that Dave Provost shared his retirement news to the crowd. He was also quick to point out that I’m hitting my 100th day soon and that means my honeymoon phase will come to a firm end. This is true: Dave always has a joke in pocket.

The moment I met Vermont’s chief captive regulator it was instantly clear that his insights, approachable nature, and dedication to improving the captive industry are held in highest esteem and are things he deeply cares about. Dave Provost’s captive knowledge and technical and managerial skillsets will be major loses to recover, but it’s his dry wit and deadpan personality that most of us will miss just as much, if not more.

Dave Provost’s insights, approachable nature, and dedication to improving the captive industry are held in highest esteem and are things he deeply cares about.

Dave and some of his team in Vermont’s Senate Chamber

Dave achieved a lifetime of captive accomplishments during his 30 years of experience in the industry. He leaves the captive sector in Vermont (and beyond) larger, stronger and more visible than when he started. The VCIA, and indeed the whole captive insurance industry will miss Dave’s shrewd perspective, his fairness and his desire for effective and speedy advice and decisions. But mostly, the whole sector will just miss Dave. VCIA is honored to have his presence in his official capacity as Vermont’s chief captive regulator once last time this August. Let us toast to Dave!

The Results Are In

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You all saw it coming. The number of captives licensed in Vermont last year eclipsed 2020 – already a banner year. Sure, almost every captive domicile had a good year, but even with over 40 states establishing captive laws, Vermont stands head and shoulders above.

Here are the hard numbers: Forty-five new captive insurance companies were licensed this past year in Vermont, making 2021 Vermont’s 4th highest year of growth in its 40-year history. Vermont is now home to 620 licensed captives, consisting of 589 active and 31 dormant captives. Vermont’s 52 sponsored cell captives currently host nearly 500 cells and separate accounts, in addition to the licensed captive companies.

The new captives were licensed in 17 different industries, the main industries being healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, insurance, and transportation. At least 5 of Vermont’s new captives in 2021 were formed by companies with international roots, including Japan, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Vermont has been experiencing growth in the number of new cells within sponsored captives, at a similar pace as new company licenses, with nine of the 45 new companies formed this year being sponsored cell companies.

Vermont has licensed a total of 1,242 captive insurance companies since 1981 and remains, by far, the largest U.S. domicile for captive insurance and third largest in the world. With an active pipeline of prospective new captive insurance companies already underway for 2022, the state expects continued growth in the coming year.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

Rich Smith
VCIA President

Happy Holidays!

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As we close out the year it is a great time to reflect on the last 12 months – or longer. It certainly has been a challenging year for all of us, but I can say without reservation how grateful I am to have been a part of this great industry for the past 12 years.

The friends I have made as head of VCIA are amazing. All of you have made my job joyful which is not something everyone can say, I know. You all know how fabulous the folks who work in the captive insurance space at the State of Vermont are – truly a pleasure to work with Dave Provost, Sandy Bigglestone, Dan Petterson, Christine Brown, Becky Aitchison, and Brittany Nevins.

VCIA’s Board of Directors day in and day out have provided their time, energy, guidance, and friendship through a year where they had to face many challenging decisions. My thanks to Andrew Baillie, Donna Blair, Joe Carter, Lawrence Cook, Tracy Hassett, Stephanie Mapes, Gail Newman, Jason Palmer, Dennis Silvia, Anne Marie Towle, and Derick White.

And to work with the great staff at VCIA in these tumultuous times has shown me just how wonderful they all are. Thank you so much Diane Leach, Elizabeth Halpern (who leaves us at the end of the year – sniff), Peggy Companion, Janice Valgoi, Dave Rapuano, and Meg Precourt for everything!

Even in these uncertain times, we are looking for a brighter future with 2022 and it gives me such comfort to know what good people there are out there.

Happy Holidays!

Rich Smith,
VCIA President

Hail to 40 Years!

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Vermont’s 40th anniversary year of the inception of its captive industry is drawing to a close. Since 1981, Vermont has worked hard to be the top U.S. domicile and continues to strive for excellence. Currently, VCIA is working with Dave Provost and Sandy Bigglestone and their team at DFR to build another captive bill to be introduced into Vermont’s General Assembly.

Over the past two years of COVID challenges, the Gold Standard has never been so apropos as Vermont lead the captive insurance industry in incredible growth and resiliency. I could not be prouder to be a part of this great work.

Brittany Nevins, in her role as Captive Insurance Economic Development Director, has put together a terrific short film highlighting relationships, accomplishments, future goals—and really what it means to be part of the Vermont captive family. I hope you will watch and encourage you to share.

Stay well and see you soon!

Rich Smith,
VCIA President

Member Mixer

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Thank you to all our members who joined us this past Wednesday evening for VCIA’s open board meeting, DFR Q & A, and Mixer. It was so nice to see people gathering once again, even if somewhat cautiously, for VCIA’s first in-person event since the beginning of COVID.

Besides hearing the litany on how many legislative items we are watching down in DC that will likely not move this Congress due to the continued gridlock, members got to hear Dave Provost and Dan Petterson from Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation provide an update on their work and changes in the future that they will see.  Brittany Nevins , Vermont’s Director of Captive Marketing, screened a new video she produced extolling the virtues as Vermont as a captive domicile for members. It was a terrific piece that will be used in the State’s marketing efforts going forward. One of the “stars” of the video was VCIA new board member, Joe Carter, from United Educators, who did a super job outlining what makes Vermont so special for captive owners.

Dave provided an update on the number of captives being licensed this year and it sounds like its going to be a record breaker. Over 40 have been approved to date and we usually see a wave of applications toward the end of the year as organizations scramble to get their captives licensed. That said, we could easily hit 50 new captives this year. A good year for new captives licensed in Vermont is usually around 25. Another interesting note, DFR is seeing far fewer dissolutions and redomestications out of Vermont then normal, meaning that current captives are not only happy but thriving. Dan reported that DFR was fully staffed and ready to take on the workload that these new captives promise.

The reception was a terrific way to cap off the day with an opportunity to see and say “hi” to many of our old and new friends alike. A special shoutout to former board member, and good friend, Ed Koral who traveled all the way from New York City to joins us that evening. I think the prize for the greatest distance traveled for the event was by Andrew Zoller, the new Head of International & Captive Solutions – US Commercial Insurance for Zurich North America, who flew in from Dallas.  Welcome to the family, Andrew!

Rich Smith,
VCIA President

Stay well and see you soon!

The Closer

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Don’t miss the VCIA Conference Aug 10 – 12! Panelists for the ‘Hot Topics with Dave Provost’ session, from L to R: Tracy Hassett, Steve Legg, Sandy Bigglestone, Ellen Charnley and Dave Provost

OK, enough with the procrastination! The VCIA Annual Conference starts August 10th, and because it is virtual, folks tend to wait until the last minute to sign up. I understand! But online registration for the event closes Monday at noon – so NOW is the perfect time!  

Besides all the great educations and networking opportunities, the one event during the conference that everyone waits for is Hot Topics with Dave Provost. For those few of you who don’t know Dave, he is the preeminent captive insurance regulator in the world (don’t take my word for – ask anyone) and his knowledge, experience, and sense of humor, provides just the right closing to our much-anticipated captive conference.

The distinguished group joining Dave (see photo above) are Sandy Bigglestone, Vermont’s Director of Captive Insurance (and Dave’s right hand woman).  In 2018, Sandy was a recipient of the Women to Watch Award for her leadership, expertise, and accomplishments in the captive insurance industry by Business Insurance. Ellen Charnley, President of Marsh’s Captive Solutions Practice, is recognized as a global leader in the captive industry. And, Steve Legg, who has been with Starbucks since 1997, serving as director, risk management since 2006. Aptly moderated by VCIA board member, Tracy Hassett, President and CEO of edHEALTH, a first of its kind consortium of colleges and universities with the mission of reducing health care costs while enhancing consumer knowledge of options, plan design, disease management and wellness programs.

This epic group will get you totally up to speed on current developments in captive regulation, key issues facing the industry, future initiatives, increased interest in captives as a response to challenging markets, and much more. You can even ask them questions and provide comments of your own. Don’t miss it!  

So, take this moment to register for VCIA 2021!  Join these experts  and other audience members and share your experience and insight to make the conference even better. YOU are what makes this event incredible!  Check it out here and Register Now!

I look forward to seeing you next week!

Rich Smith, VCIA President

The British Are Coming… And It’s Cool

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We in the captive insurance realm have fond relations with our British friends in the industry – I mean let’s face it, you can’t go to a captive event anywhere without bumping into an ex-pat.

But this past week, it was nice to meet Peter Abbott, Her Majesty’s Consul General at the British Consulate General Boston and members of his team to talk things captive insurance. The meeting was facilitated through Brittany Nevins, Director of Captive insurance for Vermont’s Department of Economic Development and included Christine Brown, Deputy Director of Captive Insurance for Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation.

Consul Abbott was making several virtual visits throughout the New England states to meet with leaders from key industries in each of the states – and naturally, captive insurance interested them the most out of all of Vermont’s industries.

We gave them the fascinating history of captive insurance in Vermont as well as discussed possible trade cooperation between the UK market and Vermont captives. And although there is already much collaboration between the U.S. captive industry and the London insurance world, it is always good to strengthen these ties.

Don’t forget registration is now open for VCIA’s Annual Conference this August. Click here for more information!

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.  

Rich Smith
VCIA President

RIMS

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Normally at this time, I would be looking forward to travelling to one of the great cities in the U.S. to take part in the mega-insurance event known as RIMS. Even though we will not be luxuriating in a convention center while pining for a breath of the outdoors this year, the State of Vermont, VCIA and our members will be staffing the virtual Vermont booth starting next Monday.

Brittany Nevins is captaining our ship, that includes Dave Provost, Sandy Bigglestone, Dan Petterson, Christine Brown, and others from Vermont’s DFR; Janice Valgoi and myself from VCIA HQ; and a smattering of captive professionals from Vermont. Normally, over 10,000 attendees stalk the cities hosting this behemoth, but with RIMS going virtual, there is still an opportunity to meet with Dave, his team and the rest of us.

We will be hanging out in our virtual booth so come on by if you are attending. Sure, there won’t be the dinners and receptions, but we are still a lot of fun!

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you soon.  

Rich Smith
VCIA President

This Week’s All Stars

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Some of the many Captive All-Stars who presented this week at WCF — Bravo all!

I attended the virtual World Captive Forum this week and it was great to see many friends over the two days. I was working the Vermont booth (remember those days…) so was not able to see all of it, but there was some good stuff on several sessions I was able to join.

The regulators panel with Vermont’s own Dave Provost, Deputy Commissioner – Captive Insurance, Vermont Department of Financial Regulation; Carl Culmer Jr., Manager – Policies and Practices, Insurance Commission of The Bahamas; and Travis Wegkamp, Director of Captive Insurance, Utah Insurance Department was ably moderated by Joe Holahan of Morris Manning & Martin LLP (and member of VCIA’s Legislative Committee). It was good to hear that each domicile was more or less in synch with each other as they discussed legislative and policy updates, new and emerging risks, and the outlook for the captive industry post-pandemic.

Dennis Silvia, Davies Captive Management and VCIA board member, did a super job with his panel, The Art of the Cell (very clever!), outlining the dramatic increase in the popularity of the use of cells and how they are currently being utilized in risk financing programs.

The topic of the hard market and evolving global risk landscape was of course a prominent area of focus throughout the conference. Another terrific panel highlighted the importance of captives in long-term risk financing and risk management planning. Deyna Feng, Director, Captive Programs at Cummins Inc.; Mike Maglaras, President of Michael Maglaras & Company; and Anne Marie Towle, Global Captives Insurance Leader of Hylant (another VCIA board member) discussed how companies are re-defining their risk appetite to take control of their own destiny by using captives to complement traditional insurance placements and fill coverage gaps. Anyone who has not yet had an opportunity to meet Christine Brown, Assistant Director of the Captive Division in Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation, moderator of the session, should check out this rising star!

And speaking of the captive insurance firmament, the all-star panel of Sandy Bigglestone, Director of Captive Insurance at Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation (Women to Watch winner 2018); Ellen Charnley, President of Marsh Captive Solutions (Women to Watch winner 2018); Karen Hsi, Program Manager- Captive Programs, University of California Office (Break Out winner 2020); and Amy Evans, Executive Vice President, Intercare (Women to Watch winner 2020) did an amazing job explaining why captives are well suited for crises such as a pandemic, hardening market and social unrest.

Great job all around!

An update from my blog on February 5th challenging you to identify the people in the 80’s era photo. Maria Young of Alcoa, who was present at the party, won the box of chocolates for identifying most of the group. She was an insider, but there was nothing in the rules that said the people there could not answer! Here is who was in the photo:

Diane Leach; Mary Wrenn (now Woodward); Gary O’Hare ; Maria Young; Cynthia Reer (now O’Connor); Sue Urie; Jeff Kenneson; Scott Whittemore; Kate Westover; Nikki Kuhn.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

Rich Smith
VCIA President

Kickin’ it Off!

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Great kickoff event for the 40th Anniversary of captive insurance in the State of Vermont this week. Each year in January, VCIA Members visit the Vermont State House for our annual Legislative Day. This special event highlights the successful working relationship between our Association and the State’s elected and appointed leaders.

This year, we switched to a virtual Legislative Day due to the pandemic and it was one of the most popular we have hosted! We started the day with a Q&A session from the leadership team at the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation’s Captive Division. They reviewed recent events and changes at DFR, as well as answered questions on what they saw on the regulatory horizon.

Midafternoon, DFR Commissioner Mike Pieciak hosted an hour-long captive industry review, highlighting 40 years of innovation and superlative regulation in Vermont. Mike also talked about how members of the Captive Division and others in DFR had taken on important roles in tackling the COVID-19 emergency in the State – the Governor drew on the expertise and competence of Mike and his department in modeling the pandemic as well as assisting in the distribution of COVID resources to Vermonters.

DFR’s Dave Provost and Sandy Bigglestone provided an overview of the captive industry in Vermont to legislators, members and guests attending, followed by Brittany Nevins, Captive Insurance Economic Development Director at Vermont’s Agency of Commerce, who gave the economic and market report. Yours truly did a quick summary of VCIA, before passing the baton to Julie Bordo, President & CEO, PCH Mutual Insurance Co. Inc. (RRG), who hit it out of the park with a presentation of her captive program and the important role Vermont has played in its success.

The final event was a zoom meeting with VCIA members and the new leaders under the gold dome. Lt. Gov. Molly Brown, Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski, and Senate President Pro Tem Becca Balint shared their valuable time with us talking about the issues and priorities they see ahead for the State of Vermont.  The enthusiasm they all brought to our meeting with our members contributed enormously to the success of the day.  Sen. Balint recounted the time as a new member of the Senate Finance Committee she reported out the captive bill on the Senate floor with a song! (Something she had to apologize to her colleagues for later 😊).

The cherry on top (literally) is that the State of Vermont provided a Lake Champlain Chocolate Thank You Gift Basket to a randomly chosen attendee of Legislative Day. The winner was our good friend Adam Dubuque of Johnson Lambert who has been in the industry for 18 years – almost half of the 40 years captives have been in business in Vermont! Yikes 😉

Thank you again to all of you who joined us this week. I look forward to hearing from you.

Rich Smith,
VCIA President