Governor Peter Shumlin announced that the Department of Financial Regulation (DFR) has licensed Vermont’s 1,000th captive insurance company.
The 1,000th captive is Cassatt Insurance Group, a group of nine independent non-profit hospitals in southeastern Pennsylvania that share risk in providing medical liability coverage for 1,200 physicians.
DFR also announced the licensing of two other new captives, bringing the amount of new captives signed this year to 16.
“We are proud to celebrate this significant accomplishment, but we will not be resting on our laurels,” said the governor. “My administration is committed to keeping Vermont at the forefront of all domiciles and keeping Vermont’s reputation as the “Gold Standard” of captive domiciles.”
Cassatt president and CEO Eric Dethlefs said Vermont was an easy choice. “We know how important it is to be in an environment that has an established track record with proven experience,” he said, “so when we compared experience, governmental support and its long-standing tradition of quality regulation, we knew Vermont was the place to be.”
DFR commissioner Susan Donegan agreed and noted that this is a milestone in the state’s financial services history. “Vermont’s captive insurance law has been called the ‘gold standard’ by trade press for its consistency in keeping pace with the changing needs of the industry over the past 32 years, and it has been used by other domiciles as a model of regulation,” she said.
Dan Towle, director of financial services, said that hospital groups setting up captives in Vermont is not a new trend. “Hospitals setting up captives as a way to better manage their professional medical liability have been a strong growth sector for Vermont. It is fitting that our thousandth captive is in the healthcare sector.”
Vermont’s captive insurance companies wrote more than $26 billion in gross written premium in 2012.
