Demystifying One Of Vermont's Major Industries: Captive Insurance

Vermont has more captive insurance companies than any other state in the country. But this multi-million dollar industry for the state is not very widely understood. In brief, captive insurance is when an organization or company sets up its own insurance company to self-insure. Over the past 30 years, it has become a huge industry in Vermont, bringing in $25 million a year in taxes and fees for the state, and around 1,400 jobs. To learn more about the industry, and its role in the state, we talk to David Provost, the Deputy Commissioner of the Captive Insurance Division at the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Care Administration (BISHCA), and Rich Smith, the president of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association.

Also on the program, earlier this year, the New York Air National Guard announced it would be conducting surveillance training missions with unmanned drones over the Adirondack Mountains.  We learn more about the drones, and about the mixed reactions to the Adirondack training flights, from Seven Days staff writer Ken Picard.

And we open up our mailbag and read some of your letters.