The Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) has aligned its staff, board and membership around three strategic pillars one year into president Ian Davis's tenure, a shift that matters to association leaders weighing how membership feedback can be converted into concrete advocacy and programming decisions rather than treated as background noise. No financial terms apply, as this is a strategy update rather than a transaction.

VCIA is the membership association representing Vermont's captive insurance industry, comprising captive owners and service providers in the state widely regarded as the leading captive domicile. As a trade association, it does not publish commercial financials.

VCIA will launch an annual benchmarking survey in September in partnership with Vermont's Department of Financial Regulation and Agency of Commerce and Community Development, assessing member perceptions of the association and the state's competitiveness against rival domiciles.

The timing reflects intensifying competition between captive domiciles rather than routine association housekeeping.

Vermont has more than 1,300 licensed captives and reclaimed the number one global domicile ranking from Bermuda in 2022, adding 51 new captives in 2025 alone, according to Business Insurance. That lead is being tested as rival domiciles, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and competing US states, continue to court the same corporate owners.

For VCIA, the new benchmarking survey converts anecdotal member sentiment into data the association can use in advocacy with state regulators. For Vermont's Department of Financial Regulation, formal member feedback helps justify continued regulatory modernisation as emerging risk categories such as cyber, AI and climate reshape demand for captive structures.

Traditional lines including property, liability and workers' compensation remain the core of most captive programmes, Davis said, meaning growth in newer risk categories will supplement rather than replace the domicile's existing base.

Whether member engagement metrics translate into faster growth than rival domiciles will be the clearer test of Davis's strategy than the pillars themselves.

Source: Captive International / Business Insurance