His comments came after the South Carolina Captive Insurance Association Inc. scheduled a two-day "Captive Redomestication Seminar" for June 12-13 in Columbia, S.C.

Mr. Modecki explained that, "Captives are a hot commodity right now. Every domicile wants to get its fair share of them, and even though they're being set up at an all-time rate, people still want to go after some of the older ones." The reason, he said, is that some domiciles "have made a commitment to the larger insurance market. So I think we're going to see more of this."

Some of the newly-formed domiciles, he added, are politically motivated and "clearly, Vermont's success is why everyone is going after" the captive market.

Even New York, he said, is "talking about redoing its captive law, and when you get New York into the game, you're starting to play in the big leagues."

Mr. Modecki, principal of Carl A. Modecki Consulting Services in Tallahassee, Fla., said that not only has the phenomenon been noticed, but the topic is being added to CICA's members-only meeting, scheduled for Oct. 14 in New York City.

He said Leonard Crouse, director of captive insurance for the Vermont Department of Banking Insurance and Securities, had agreed to participate in the session, "so, it's clearly a topic that's out there."

"That people are doing a two-day seminar just shows how much interest there is," he added.

Clayton Ingram, director of business development for the South Carolina Department of Insurance, said he is a scheduled speaker at the seminar, which was the brainchild of the SCCIA.

"Since we're the new players in the game and we weren't at the table before, people who located elsewhere may want to reconsider their move," he said.

Mr. Ingram said South Carolina "gets calls all the time" from companies interested in redomesticating. Much of that interest, he said, is from offshore relocations.

"For most of these groups there is really no advantage to being offshore anymore," he said. "Most of them have elected to be taxed as U.S. corporations anyway, and the time and expense of operating offshore have outweighed whatever positives there were in the beginning."

South Carolina, he said, has structured its laws "to make it possible to do pretty much anything onshore that you can do offshore," he said.

Mr. Crouse, the Vermont captive insurance director, is less than enthusiastic about the seminar's focus. "It's nothing that's ever been done in this business. Never," he said. "If a company wants to redomesticate, there is a reason for it. This sets a precedent and it's something that's not done."

Mr. Crouse continued that, "People go where they want to go" because they like the regulations, the location, "or the CFO wants to go to a certain spot. And what's South Carolina going to offer," he asked. "Lower taxes? No taxes? No regulation?"

Mr. Crouse added that if the Vermont Captive Insurance Association were to consider hosting such a seminar, "it would definitely talk to me beforehand, because that's the way we operate."

If a captive already established in another domicile "were to call and ask me why they should go to Vermont I'd tell them, one-on-one," he explained. "But I'm not going to have a seminar saying move your captive from Hawaii or move your captive from Bermuda and come to Vermont. The brokers will bring those captives in."