Seventy-four firms will be vying for honours at the 2015 US Captive Services Awards held in Vermont on Monday, 10 August.

Taking place in Vermont for the first time and on the eve of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association’s (VCIA) annual conference – the largest onshore captive gathering in the United States – the 2015 edition of the US Captive Services Awards has broken the record for the number of individual firms submitting an entry.

As ever, traditional categories such as Captive Manager, US Captive Domicile and Onshore Law Firm are hotly contested while areas such as Captive Healthcare Specialist and Employee Benefits Specialist have seen significant interest.

Captive Review’s editor Richard Cutcher has picked out Employee Benefits as a particularly intriguing contest.

Roundstone Management, Spring Consulting Group, Towers Watson, Willis Global Captive Practice and Zurich North America are in contention for the gong.

“That is a real heavyweight battle in one of the most talked-about areas of captive development,” said Cutcher.

“It is one of few categories where very different types of service providers are up against each other and serves to demonstrate how important and relevant an issue the funding of employee benefits now is for American insurance buyers.”

Among those firms most shortlisted are Aon and Zurich North America (both six), Roundstone Management (four) and Willis Global Captive Practice (four).

Six states are in contention for the US Captive Domicile award – Delaware (winners in 2013), Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Vermont (winners in 2014).

“The US Captive Domicile category becomes more competitive every year and it will be intriguing to see how the more established captive states stand up to the challenge from emerging jurisdictions such as Oklahoma and North Carolina,” Cutcher added.

Twenty-six awards will be handed out at the Hilton Burlington on Monday, 10 August including Captive Professional of the Year and Outstanding Contribution by an Individual.

The 2015 US Captive Services Awards are judged by risk and insurance professionals from seven American captive owning corporations. The full shortlist and list of judges will be available to view on the awards website.

If you are interested in attending the 2015 US Captive Services Awards please contact Alex Blackman by email at a.blackman@captivereview.com