Is the Insurance Industry Dying a Slow Death?

Insurance is one of the oldest industries in existence and accounts for roughly $1 of every $4 spent in the United States. Despite its dominance, stability, and longevity, as an industry, young people increasingly write it off as a potential career path. We believe insurtech can help reverse this trend and change the way young professionals look at careers in insurance.

As a digital insurance broker leveraging technology to drastically improve the overall process of purchasing and managing commercial insurance, we have the benefit of appearing more like a technology startup than an insurance broker. And while we technically are an insurtech startup, we were founded by a deeply experienced insurance professional and take an insurance-first approach to everything we do. As a result, one of the biggest challenges we anticipate facing as we continue to grow is attracting and recruiting the next generation of insurance professionals. Why? Simply put, insurance isn’t exciting. Alarmingly, the average age of an insurance professional in the United States is around 60! This is a scary statistic that suggests the insurance industry is on the verge of extinction if it doesn’t make changes that can attract young professionals.

A quick search of insurance recruiter websites and insurance-related job postings results in seemingly endless pages of results with the average insurance recruiter having 25 to 30 open positions. When I was first getting my start as a traditional commercial insurance over a decade ago, the average recruiter had far less open positions. My theory is that millennials and future generations simply have no desire to work within the insurance industry because of how it’s (dare I say rightfully?) perceived. Sure, I’m generalizing, but based on discussions I have regularly this theory might not be far off. Why would someone who grew up with revolutionary technology at their fingertips and who is motivated largely by things like unique experiences and having a positive impact want a career in an overly regulated, slow to change, technologically inept industry? They wouldn’t. Insurtech can change this reality by continuing to force our archaic old-fashioned industry to adopt and invest in technology, distribute our products the way modern consumers demand them, and provide our employees with the work environments and employment benefits other attractive industries offer.

Insurance and risk management will always be challenging and complex. It will always require smart people who enjoy solving big important problems and there is endless opportunity solve these big important problems in new ways. This is the story we need to be sharing because it is exactly the kind of challenge current and future generations want to work on in their careers. They want to know that what they spend so much of their time working on matters and insurance matters. It matters a lot.