27 October 2015 Insurance

‘Broken’ industry must work to attract new generation: Duperreault

The re/insurance industry is caught between analogue and digital worlds and large parts of it are “broken” as a result, Brian Duperreault, chief executive officer of Hamilton Insurance, told delegates at the PCI annual conference yesterday (Monday October 26).

“We are in the age of analytics where currency is data and code is king,” he said. “Our business is truly broken; disruption is here for a reason. We continue to make it painful and annoying for our customers.”

Duperreault explained that the influx of alternative capital and the consolidation this has triggered, in part, are two of the biggest reasons the marketplace is changing.

“But is this M&A activity producing the insurance company of the future?” he asked.

Duperreault explained two keys to answering this question: alternative capital and the question of how companies define and differentiate themselves.

He believes that alternative capital is here to stay and re/insurers should embrace it while moving away from the traditional approach to risk-taking.

He also said companies should consider how they define themselves and whether they are adding value. He explained that brokers should turn away from just processing data and ensuring they are trusted advisers, adding that they must “fix it or get out of the way”.

A regular theme with Duperreault is that of how to attract millennials to the re/insurance industry. He presented statistics showing that within five years, there will be 400,000 open positions in the industry.

Re/insurance, according to the executive, has a terrible reputation with new graduates. He unveiled plans to attract this generation, with an insurance careers month to take place in February next year.

“Insurance is career trifecta: it’s stable, rewarding and limitless,” he said, and he plans to lead the charge of making the industry more attractive to a different generation.

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