Alcoa asks to use captive to fund U.S. benefit risks.

ALCOA Inc. 001339472 AA; ALCON Laboratories Inc.

This article reports that the nation's largest aluminum producer and one of the first to establish a Vermont-based captive insurer Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc. wants to use the captive to reinsure group term life insurance policies written by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. for employees who work for Alcoa and two Alcoa-affiliated companies. That captive, Three Rivers Insurance Co., which was licensed in Vermont 21 years ago and now is among Vermont's larger single-parent companies, last year generated more than$ 44 million in gross written premiums. In addition, Fort Worth, Texas-based Alcon Laboratories Inc., a subsidiary of Hunenberg, Switzerland-based eye care pharmaceutical a giant Alcon Inc., this summer received Labor Department permission to use its Vermont captive to reinsure Aetna-written LTD and life insurance benefit policies.