years after it was formed.

Business Insurance reported last week that Quaker Insurance Co. Ltd., formed in 1997 to reinsure a Vermont risk retention group which provided liability insurance to physicians, is dormant after the physicians' employer secured coverage in the commercial market.

The University of Pennsylvania founded Vermont-based Franklin Casualty Insurance Co. and Quaker in 1997 to provide coverage for the University of Pennsylvania Health Systems and its physicians.

But competitive pricing in the commercial market has now proven so attractive that the group "had to take advantage of the opportunity'' and signed a three-year deal with a commercial insurer.

Franklin, which wrote $8.2 billion in premium last year, began running off its business last year. "The captive in Bermuda is basically solely insuring the risk retention group, so there is no coverage in either entity,'' said Franklin president Kenneth Hoffman.