The captive insurance industry needs to be more active in inspiring the next generation of insurance professionals, according to Anne Marie Towle, captive practice leader at JLT Insurance Management.
Speaking at a session on succession planning at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association 2018 Annual Conference, Towle said work needed to be done at the “grassroots level”.
She said: “Insurance is not something that you hear about much at high schools, more conversation needs happen at this level.”
“All of us in the industry need to be more active and help educate at the grassroots level by speaking at high schools.”
The industry is facing a ‘talent crisis’, and statistics were shown that suggested nearly 400,000 people are expected to retire from the insurance workforce in the next three to five years and approximately 25 percent of the current workforce by the end of 2018.
Another of the panellists, Colin Donovan, president of the risk retention group STICO Mutual Insurance Company, suggested that attracting more young people to the industry also needed to be done at a college level.
Donovan said: “The path for young professionals has to be there at the college level.”
“I have no say in what colleges put in their curriculum but that is where is has to begin because that is when kids start having ideas of what they enjoy.”
“If there is no risk management programmes then you’re going to have to find people that accidentally fall into insurance jobs, there has to be a programme if there is going to be a true path laid out.”
Towle said there was more work being done now than 10 years ago meaning there was more of a defined path at some colleges and universities.
She said: “If you look at organisations that are becoming active in this space like Temple University, Butler University, some of the schools in Illinois and others across the country, when we look at targeted risk management and insurance programmes there is a little bit more focus today than even 10 or 25 years ago.”
“Starting with more formal mentoring programmes today, young professionals have more of a defined path.”
Les Boughner, chairman of Advantage Insurance, said this increase in the amount of RMI education available was good news for the industry.
“A positive for the industry is that more schools are developing RMI specialties, which introduces students to the broadness of the industry and the opportunities available for them in captives. That exposure is important.”
Donovan posed the question of whether industry conferences needed to be changed to reflect their changing audience.
He said: “One of the things that opened my eyes to this industry and the opportunities it offered was conferences like this, exposing young people to these events will be really helpful.”
“A lot of the events at these events are geared toward baby boomers, do we need to rethink conferences and the engagement within them?”
Alicia Miller from Crowe, another member of the panel, commented: “In order for us to keep up with the times we’ve had to change the culture of how public accounting works.”
According to Miller, these changes in culture have developed over time, which appeal to a younger generation of professional, and include a work from home and a dress for your day policy.
She added: “We have to keep up with changing technology and attitudes to keep moving forward and be the people making changes and performing well in the industry.”
