Category Archives: VCIA Captive Immersion

Make Sure Your Register Because This Is The Last Call for #VCIA2022 Early Bird Rates!

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The Vermont state bird is the Catharus guttatus, more commonly known as the Hermit Thrush. However, the VCIA organizational equivalent is Primo Avis Mandare, for those not up on their Latin–the Early Bird! Leaving just as the Hermit Thrush arrives for its summer visit, the Early Bird’s call is ‘cheaper, cheaper!’ If you’re not quick you will miss its beautiful song because this seasonal visitor departs in just 6 days, having been seen by over 500 people. Primo Avis Mandare is certainly not shy and likes all kinds of attention, so grab your bird call whistle and binoculars and make sure you register for the 2022 VCIA Conference before the clock strikes midnight on Friday July 1st when Early Bird migrates away! I suggest you dally no longer and secure your spot at the captive industry’s biggest and best summer conference by booking your attendance via this link. 

The early bird gets the worm, or in #VCIA2022’s case, gets the best registration rates, which end June 30th!

VCIA’s 37th Annual Conference–our first in-person in 2019–promises to be an outstanding week of special events, productive networking, and, I’m not afraid to say it, the best captive education you’ll find on the planet.

The variety and depth of sessions, all incorporating the latest trends, emerging risks, and legal contexts, form the foundation of #VCIA2022. You will discuss captives and collaborate on ideas related to climate change, social inflation, tax developments, InsureTech (to name just a few). Simply put, nothing can match that experience without being on the ground in Burlington, Vermont the week of August 8th. Hundreds of captive professionals tend to agree with my perspective. We have attracted a strong crowd to register for the conference already, and we expect our current 500+ count to surge as the expiration of the discount approaches. 

Make memories at #VCIA2022. Register now to secure your early bird rate!

A major focus of mine as the new VCIA president is value. What value has VCIA brought to its members and stakeholders in the past and how can I improve upon that? I meet with people and companies on a regular basis to hear their needs and understand how VCIA can help. In the same way, #VCIA2022 is all about value. We’ve built into a week’s schedule as much as quality possible so you benefit from the value of the finest captive educational content and networking opportunities.

#VCIA2022 is all about value. We’ve built into a week’s schedule as much quality as possible so you benefit from the value of the finest captive educational content and networking opportunities.

VCIA President Kevin Mead

Don’t just take it from me. Dozens of talented captive professionals have been working hard for months to produce something special. I refer to the Conference Task Force and VCIA’s Director of Education and Programming Diane Leach. The 2022 Chair of the Conference Task Force, Ian Davis, Senior Vice President, Captive Insurance Relationship Manager at People’s United Bank, realizes the anticipation for #VCIA2022 is growing and can’t wait to share the fruits of our team’s labor. “We know how much it means for the industry to get together and you will see that on full display at the conference, guaranteed. We’ve designed the conference to emphasize engagement, to explore important ideas and how they can benefit our companies, and to celebrate how we all are moving the captive world forward.”

I for one am proud as hell for all the blood, sweat, and tears we’ve put into our Annual Conference. I’m also super excited. Together with some of you, this will be my first VCIA Conference, and I am really looking forward to being able to start and build relationships and connections that will mutually benefit the VCIA and the entire industry.

First step? Spot the early bird and register today! See you sooner than you think!

Summer Conference Registration Opens!

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Meticulously planning, securing keynotes and hammering out the schedule, we’ve waited all year for this and now the “gates are opened” for our first in-person conference in three years. We can’t wait to gather with the captive industry’s best and brightest this August in Burlington.

Our 2022 Conference is sure to be a memorable one!

We’re officially launched! Please visit our conference registration page to sign up for the biggest and strongest captive insurance event this summer on the global calendar. No matter your experience level, you will find so much in our conference that will develop you professionally and advance your career. We have a full slate of dynamic educational sessions, curated networking and benchmarking events, and an environment conducive for making business deals. Simply put, you are sure to add to you captive knowledge at the 2022 VCIA Conference, and more than that, it will be a triumphant celebration of the captive industry at large. Be sure to follow the #VCIA2022 hashtag on Twitter and LinkedIn.

I should mention (before I enlist you in another conference prize opportunity!) that I highly recommend booking your hotel and travel flight plans as soon as possible in order to avoid any complications. There are rooms still available at the VCIA group rate, but they are going fast, so head to our conference lodging page and be directed to local hotels who carry our group rate.

I’m a horse racing fan and I enjoy placing some modest bets down when I’m at the track. In that spirit, we are expecting a banner year, and as insurance professionals you are all concerned with risk and the odds that something might or might not occur. So, I introduce you to the VCIA version of ‘How Many Jelly Beans are in the Jar?’  I believe that our total attendance count will be 1,048. Are you taking that over or under? My guess includes exhibitors, staff and all classifications of attendees – i.e. anyone with a name badge! Let me know your number, and if I’m the closest, I will make a $50 personal donation to ICCIE (www.iccie.org), the captive insurance industry’s educational non-profit.  If someone beats me, I will make a $100 donation in their name!  We will, of course, also recognize the best prognosticator! Send your guesses to kmead@vcia.com

Need a little help to formulate your guess? Check out our Conference Attendee page to see who has already registered!

How many people will be in attendance at our conference? Take a guess and email Kevin!

See you in August – if not before! 

Back to the Future… with VCIA’s Annual Tax Update!

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I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week and were able to spend it with friends and family. As we move into the continued uncertainty with COVID, it is always good to take a step back to appreciate and be with loved ones (or ones that at least like you).

One certain thing you can count on this time of year is VCIA’s annual captive tax update webinar, scheduled for December 15 at 2:00 ET. This year we present “Back to the Future” where our esteemed captive tax specialists review 2021’s most significant tax developments and explore the possible impacts of proposed legislative action by the current administration.

Our panel consists of Daniel Kusaila, Partner at Crowe LLP, Chaz Lavelle, Partner at Dentons Bingham Greenbaum LLP, and Brandy Vannoy, Partner at Johnson Lambert LLP. With the help from content advisors Stephanie Brassard of Johnson Lambert LLP and Dana Marino of Innovative Captive Strategies, the panel will provide an analysis of state and federal tax activity from 2021.

Our panelists will also provide an overview of recent, notable court cases and IRS actions. This includes a discussion on “lessons learned “ for large captives from small captive cases and a “fact or factors” segment highlighting key drivers that impacted the decisions made by the courts.

Our tax specialists will be monitoring the current tax landscape through the days leading up to this webinar to ensure the audience receives real-time updates on the state and federal tax environments.

Also, I want to say congratulations to Dave Angus, recently appointed as counsel to the captive insurance law practice at the firm of Paul Frank + Collins in Burlington, Vermont. Dave brings his captive insurance and transactional practice from The Angus Firm to PF+C’s captive insurance team and has been a long-time member (and twice chair) of VCIA’s Legislative Committee. Congratulations, David!

Stay well and see you soon!

Rich Smith,
VCIA President

Team VCIA + Team DED + TEAM DFR = Team Vermont

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2You may ask yourself (and others) just how is VCIA going to pull off a successful 100% virtual captive insurance conference this August. Well, we are still working out the details, but one BIG reason I feel confident it will be great is the support and brainpower we get from our colleagues at the State of Vermont’s Department of Economic Development (DED) and Department of Financial Regulation (DFR).

Often, when I go to captive insurance conferences, people talk to me as if I were a regulator from Vermont. Not surprising, many folks conflate our distinct organizations because we coordinate so well with each other. I will then explain that, no, I am not a State employee but staff the captive trade association. And even though we are separate organizations with our own missions, we absolutely work in tandem for the good of Vermont’s captive industry.

Now is one of those times I am truly proud of that essential teamwork. VCIA staff met yesterday via Zoom with Ian Davis from DED and the captive leadership from DFR: Dave Provost, Christine Brown, Dan Petterson, and Sandy Bigglestone, to discuss ideas on the best ways to make the VCIA Virtual Conference truly awesome. The State folks brought excellent ideas, innovative thinking, and, most importantly, terrific enthusiasm to the process. Their professionalism and broad perspectives underscored just how lucky we are to have their partnership.

So, keep an eye out for details. We plan to bring you a terrific conference – and could not have done it without Team Vermont!

Thank you and stay safe!

Rich Smith
VCIA President

Go Big!

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going-virtual

As you may have heard, VCIA decided this week to move our Annual Conference in August to a 100% virtual event.

This decision definitely was not made lightly. VCIA Board, staff and Conference Task Force members labored over the facts, sought outside advice, and kept you all foremost in our minds through all the discussions. Though the full social and economic impact of the pandemic is still unfolding, we believe it will require recovery time to get back to “normal” for all of society, including our industry.

Going to a fully virtual conference is consistent with the uncertainty the next few months brings and the need to put public health first, and it also ensures the industry will have an opportunity to share important and critical information – especially regarding future pandemic risk management.

The response from our members of going virtual has been very positive.  I know there are folks who think we may have made the wrong decision or that we should have waited longer before making the decision, and I understand their feelings. However, we knew if we were to bring you the best conference possible in a new virtual space, we needed to get out of the gate quickly.

By starting now, we are confident that VCIA will deliver a virtual event that satisfies your needs for top-level education and networking, our exhibitors needs to have their products and services seen, our sponsors desires to be associated with a leading enterprise, and the public health system’s need for social distance and caution. Presenting in a virtual space may also open up the conference to those who may not have been able to travel this summer. With corporate travel and finances being currently of concern, we hope this can be a helpful shift.

There will be much more information to come on conference specifics. For now, please bear with us and trust that VCIA has taken into account your needs. Your continued support will be key to the success of the conference, just as it has been for the past 30+ years.  We are successful in large part due to the enthusiastic and committed involvement of you, our members.

When times are tough, the captive industry has a way of adapting. We are fortunate to be among such innovative professionals, like you. We will all get through this together.

Thank you and stay safe!

Rich Smith
VCIA President

COVID – 19

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The complexity and uncertainty of the coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak is worrisome, to put it mildly. As of this writing, the virus has infected 90,000 people and left more than 3,000 people dead, mostly in China, but the spike in cases around the world remind me of those doomsday movies where it shows a map with the plague hopping from one place to another with ease.  When we get mixed messages from our leaders, and health experts debate the proper response, it is not surprising to see a growing anxiety in the general populace.

I have heard from two large companies in the insurance world that have very different responses for their employees. One has banned all non-essential travel not only overseas, but here in the US as well. The other has taken a more wait and see approach, advising employees to use “common sense” when traveling. Many businesses have asked their employees to work from homes – which won’t help someone on the factory floor or who works in a restaurant.

A couple of things come to mind as I try to get my head around the potential impact to captives. First, most traditional insurance policies have exclusions for pandemics in their policies. According to the Insurance Journal, the world’s largest insurers learned lessons from previous health crises, including the 2003 SARS outbreak, and have tightened up their policies, inserting communicable-disease exclusions to prevent potential losses. That means consumers and companies will bear the brunt of the cost for disruptions related to the virus. Whether captive insurance can help mitigate potential losses is something that we have begun to look into more closely.

The other impact is something captives and traditional insurers have been dealing with for some time. Investment returns have been stingy for the insurance world for many years and many have diversified away from more traditional bonds to equities. Investment losses rather than claims will likely cause the biggest hit to insurers from the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report from Moody’s Investor Services Inc.  Moody’s said, “A prolonged period of market weakness would also hurt insurers’ investment income and reduce their access to capital…”

As for me, I seem to swing back and forth after every news story I hear on the virus on what “common sense” means. Without a doubt, the COVID-19 has already had an impact on the world economy and our general sense of health and safety.  I believe in the resilience of the captive insurance industry and know that many of the people involved with risk management at their organizations will play an important part in stemming this outbreak.  Let’s all hope that we see the end of this sooner rather than later.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!

Rich Smith
VCIA President

10-Day Countdown

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Just ten days until we open Burlington, Vermont to all you captive insurance professionals! If you have not already done so, please make plans to join us for a week of wonderful education, networking and friendship.

Here is just a smattering of some of the captive owners who will be presenting this year:

  • Andrew Baillie, AES of Global Insurance Company
  • Sean Barnes of United Educators
  • Julie Bordo of PCH Mutual Insurance Co., Inc., a RRG
  • Tracy Hassett of Educators Health Insurance Exchange of New England
  • Tim Herr of Recreation Risk Retention Group
  • Karen Hsi of the University of California
  • Jan Klodowski of Agri-Services Agency LLC & Agrisurance Inc.
  • Troy LePage of HAI Group
  • Heather McClure of Oklahoma University Medical
  • Bill Murray of Church Insurance
  • Tim Padovese of Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company (OMIC)
  • Joshua Reding of Life Time Captive Insurance Company
  • Paul Smith of National Insurance and Indemnity Corporation

I hope you all can join us! Click here to register for the VCIA Conference today.

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

Rich Smith

Young at Heart

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Young professionals

Young captive professionals at a recent VCIA event.

Recruiting and training the next generation of captive professionals is a paramount issue for our industry, as everyone knows. Both CICA and NRRA have programs designed to reach out to this group and draw them into the industry.  Fostering newcomers to join the field and eventually step into the roles of our current captive leaders and professionals is an initiative that VCIA takes to heart.

Over the past number of years, VCIA’s Annual Conference has created places and sessions where young professionals can learn from and network with both peers and seasoned professionals as they pick a pathway forward in the captive insurance field.  Besides our NEW Captive Immersion experience, which will familiarize those who are new to the captive industry on the key services, and our annual Captives 101 session that provides a basic overview of captive insurance companies and RRGs, other VCIA sessions designated for young professionals include:

Developing the Next Generation of Captive Industry Leaders, which will explore what is being done in the industry to attract and retain new talent.  According to the Pew Research Center, millennials were the largest portion of the workforce in 2016. As a group they are very connected, having grown up with the internet in their everyday life. In the workforce, they are eager to make a meaningful contribution to the workplace and the greater good. In many ways, this group is helping transform organizations.

Our Young Professionals Forum will provide a great resource particularly for those with fewer than 10 years of captive experience.  Three dynamic facilitators will lead small group discussions about sharpening your speaker skills, how to approach your early career years and work/life balance.  Afterwards, an open forum will occur for a fluid discussion on topics such as transitioning into the workforce, professionalism and meeting work demands in a sometimes-stressful environment.

On top of all that is just the best networking opportunities both “on campus” and “off campus” in the captive industry, so, I hope you all can join us! Click here to register for the VCIA Conference today.

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

From Early Bird to Angry Bird

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For all you procrastinators out there (and I count myself as one of the best) listen up! VCIA’s Annual Conference “early bird” rates are about to expire on June 30th. That means, of course, you will be paying more to learn and network with 1100 captive professionals from around the US and the world. And none of us like doing that.

Don’t take my word on it – look, here it is in black and white:

Registration Type

Early Price

Late Price
Full Pass: Member $750 $825
Full Pass: Non-member $1300 $1380
Networking: Member $465 $515
Networking: Non-member $890 $940

So, before the early bird changes into an angry bird, get on it! Click here to register today.

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

Rich Smith
VCIA President

Space…The Final Frontier

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Very cliché, I know, but still so true.

The fact that we now have a burgeoning space industry opens up opportunities for the insurance world. Most insurance companies offer some type of Space and Satellite Insurance which covers things like satellite launch and in-orbit, contingency, in-orbit third party liability, or some combination thereof.  But with space tourism becoming a reality in the not-too-distance future, captive insurance has an opportunity to play a role in the risk management of our last frontier.

The global banking firm UBS believes there will be very lucrative ramifications from the space flight efforts currently led by Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin, and stated that in a decade high-speed travel via outer space will represent an annual market of at least $20 billion and compete with long-distance airline flights. Space tourism will be a $3 billion market by 2030, UBS estimates.

UBS pointed to SpaceX’s plans to use the massive Starship rocket it is building to fly as many as 100 people around the world in minutes. SpaceX said that Starship would be able to fly from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes, rather than the 15 hours it takes currently by airplane – pretty cool.  And even though space tourism is still nascent, UBS said they believe the sub-sector will become mainstream as the technology becomes proven and cost falls.

The legal risk of orbital space tourism is uncharted territory, and the liability risks to these companies could be huge.  Under current regulation, commercial passengers will have to sign an “informed consent” form to confirm that they recognize and accept the risks. This provision has been enshrined in US law by the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act 2004. Such liability waivers remain untested in the courts.

Although there are large insurance firms looking at space tourism, it seems that there is a yawning gap for the liability coverage of the space firms. Captives have always done well with filling this void with targeted, bespoke coverage. So, brush off your old Star Trek DVDs and let’s hope that we have a panel at the VCIA conference in the next ten years devoted to the extraterrestrial!

For all you Trekkies out there we have the next best thing to Captain James T. Kirk: for our closing luncheon on Thursday at the VCIA Annual Conference the week of August 5th we have former astronaut Mike Massimino as our special keynote. He is a recurring character on The Big Bang Theory, a professor at Columbia University, the first person to tweet from space, and a New York Times best-selling author.  Mike will speak of pursuing his passion and tell incredible stories about his experiences in outer space manning space missions. Having one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, Mike will speak of the teamwork and problem-solving skills needed to train for and accomplish one of NASA’s most difficult space missions. Don’t miss this fun closing event!

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

Rich Smith
VCIA President