Finance job vermont

Ask Len Crouse what he hates most about his job and he laughs and tells you it's that he can only play golf five months of file year. That, and no more.

He laughs again when you subtlest, as I did, that he has no one but himself to blame. After all, it was his own choice to make the short, chilly migration from the snows of Massachusetts to the snows of Vermont. Why not seek opportunity, and links, in balmier climes?

For Leonard D. Crouse, the opportunity that beckoned from the Vermont Insurance Department in May of 1990, when he was appointed the state's director of captive insurance, is one he has never regretted, the shorter golf season notwithstanding.

He arrived in Vermont's capital, Montpelier, in the early days of the captive boom and has presided, with outspoken pride, over it ever since. In the meantime, Vermont has rocketed to the No. 1 domicile in the United States and to No. 3 in the world.

Blunt, friendly and humorous, Len Crouse is a career regulator who says lie "fell into" the insurance business (no one grows up saying they want be "an insurance guy"), when he joined the insurance department in his native state of Massachusetts as an examiner in 1969. "I worked my way up through the ranks and ended up being chief examiner of the property and casualty division down there," he says.

Those roots cling to him to this day. He still carries the "CFE" designation next to his name on his business card and he still maintains his membership in the Society of Financial Examiners.

But by 1990, he says, "the time was right in my life to make a change." Coincidentally, an old friend, Ed Meehan, also a veteran insurance regulator, was moving on from his post as Vermont's director of captive insurance. "We had known each other through NAIC meetings," says Crouse. "Ed and I were friends as well as business associates. He called me and said there was a job opening up here and he thought I'd be a perfect fit for it, so I said fine. And here I am. I'm still here."

Since then, with a staff that now numbers more than 20, Crouse has been responsible for the administration and regulation of captive insurance companies and risk retention groups in Vermont. In May of 2003, lie gained the added distinction of being named deputy commissioner of captive insurance.

When it comes to golf, he's just kidding around--up to a point. An avid duffer, he's been at the game in one way or another since he was nine years old, though he didn't get really serious about it until 15 years ago. But the business about what he otherwise dislikes about his job, namely nothing, seems to be straight from the shoulder.

A conversation with Len Crouse, in fact, is peppered with a kind of positive, upbeat boosterism about his job, his staff, his adopted state, and about the captive industry in the Green Mountain State.

I ask him about his proudest professional accomplishment. (You have to be very specific these days, because in his personal life he's just become a grandfather). He says he's most proud of the job he's had for the past 14 years, overseeing the phenomenal growth of the captive industry in Vermont. "You know when I came here there were 200 captives and licenses," he says. "Now we're up to almost 700 licenses."

He's just as proud of building an infrastructure of "solid people" within his department, which has grown from four to 22. He points in particular to Derick White, who recently succeeded him as director of captive insurance, and to Pete Raymond, director of financial examinations. Both have been with him for ] 0 years. "These guys are the best in their business," he says. "I'd put my people up against any regulatory staff in the country, bar none--any state agency for that matter," he boasts. "There's none better than mine. I feel strongly about that."

Beyond Vermont, it's been satisfying to him to watch the captive insurance industry grow as a whole worldwide. "It's been fun to be part of that," he says. What he likes most about what he does is "building relationships with folks, getting to know different people, meeting people from all businesses, because every major business in the country is here, and building relationships and trust," he says. "The people part of it is just wonderful.

THE NEXT BIG THING?

What's the next big thing for captives? "That's a tough one, says Crouse. "I don't know. We've seen so much evolve just in Vermont in the last 10 years, allowing different types of programs. We've gone through everything from reciprocal insurers to employee benefits to financial services to mortgage insurance, which was a big thing for us about four to five years ago."

Whether or not the setting up of employee benefits captives takes off he's now uncertain. "I was quoted two years ago as saying it would be the next big thing in captives and it hasn't happened yet," he jokes.

He attributes this somewhat to market conditions. "It's been a hard market for the last few years and I just think these large corporations and these risk managers have enough on their plates," he says. "They haven't found the time to concentrate on employee benefits. It's growing slowly, but we're seeing more and more of it. There's a lot involved, like getting the approval of the Department of Labor. That takes a little time. Who knows? Maybe it'll be something big someday. People smarter than myself may have other reasons as to why it's not taking off. Maybe it's just not what it was cracked up to be in the first place."

He laughs yet again, this time uproariously, when you ask him if he has any heroes in his business. "In insurance regulation? No, I don't have any heroes. I really don't. You know traditional regulation is a little bit different than what I do now, the alternative market. Believe me, I don't think there are a lot of heroes in traditional regulation."

More soberly, he talks about how difficult life can be for himself and his colleagues. "It's tough," he says. "It's not easy to be a regulator. You have laws and rules and statutes and the NAIC to contend with. There's a whole bunch of things you have to do. An awful lot of people don't realize how much goes into regulation." The trick, he says, is to be firm and fair and not to regulate too much. "You do what you have to do. With those companies that come here, if it makes good business sense and they know what they're doing and they're honest people, it will work."

The conversation ends where it began. "I don't have any regrets at all," says Crouse. "Hopefully, I'll have a few more years. It's been a great ride."

TOM SLATTERY, senior contributing editor, wrote the entire special section on Vermont Tom, former executive editor and publisher of the National Underwriter is now the managing director of Slattery-Esterkamp Communications, Baldwin, N.Y. He can be reached a riskletters@lrp.com.