Vermont to ease captive insurer rules

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is expected to sign legislation Thursday making a series of changes to the state's captive statute.

Those changes, included in legislation passed last month by state lawmakers, will:

• Reduce to $250,000 from $500,000 the minimum capital requirements for cell captives.

• Make clear that marketable securities, along with cash, trusts and letters of credit, can be used to meet captive capitalization requirements. State captive regulators will issue guidance to define what are marketable securities.

• Reduce to one from three the number of individuals required to sign a captive's incorporation papers.

“These improvements in Vermont's law may seem technical, but taken as a whole they continue to advance Vermont's standing as the 'Gold Standard' for domiciles and will provide greater flexibility and clarity going forward for our companies,” Gov. Shumlin said Tuesday in a statement Tuesday.

At year-end 2014, Vermont had 587 captives, making it the world's third-largest captive domicile and the largest in the United States.