FORTY Under 40: Aaron Lubbers

Looking back at your journey over the past year, what accomplishment are you most proud of, and how has becoming a FORTY Under 40 finalist influenced your perspective on that achievement?

I’m most proud of the progress our team continues to make as we scale this practice; helping organisations view captives not just as an insurance product, but as the strategic risk-financing tool that it is. With the continued volatility in the traditional marketplace, we’ve worked to help companies step back and think more holistically about their cost of risk and the long-term stability they seek.

Another personal highlight was joining the ICCIE faculty in 2025 as an instructor for the ACI designation. Helping educate other professionals reinforces how important knowledge sharing is to the continued growth of our industry.

What key challenge did you face in your work this year? How did you overcome it and what did it teach you about leadership at this stage of your career?

This has been helping organisations navigate continued changes in the insurance market while evaluating longer-term strategies. Captive solutions are more popular than ever, awareness continues to grow and barriers to entry are coming down, more organisations are exploring them as part of their risk financing approach.

“Our goal is to remain agnostic to the specific structure or solution, focusing instead on what is best for the insured.”

That increased interest is encouraging, but it can also create urgency to move quickly. One of our roles is to help organisations slow the conversation down and simplify these concepts to ensure decisions are made thoughtfully and with a long-term perspective.

One principle we’ve been intentional about is building our practice with independence. Our goal is to remain agnostic to the specific structure or solution, focusing instead on what is best for the insured. That independence allows us to evaluate the options and design programmes that truly align with an organisation’s risk tolerance, capital position and long-term goals.

This process focuses on education and collaboration, bringing together various programme administrators, underwriters, actuaries and other service providers to evaluate the risk from different perspectives. What this experience continues to reinforce for me is that leadership isn’t about having every answer; it’s about creating an environment where the right professionals can solve the problem together. In the captive world, the best outcomes almost always come from collaboration.

In what ways have you tried to push innovation or rethink traditional approaches within your sector, and what impact has that had on your team or organisation?

We have the privilege of working with some very forward-thinking insureds, along with creative carrier and reinsurance partners who are willing to challenge traditional programme designs. This provides an opening to evaluate risk differently, and creates opportunities to rethink how captives can fit within that risk-financing strategy.

Captives are not a single solution, each one is different – there are nuances to every solution, and this allows us to work with clients to deploy them in different ways. Supporting deductible funding, participating in property layers and quota-share positions in both primary and excess programmes. In some cases, the captive is used to fund specific enterprise risks that might not fit neatly within a traditional insurance offering.

The captive market was built on innovation and continues to reward teams willing to think creatively about risk. When clients and partners are open to innovation, captives become a flexible tool for solving risk management and risk financing challenges, not just another insurance product.

How do you see your role evolving over the next three to five years, and what initiatives are you most excited to pursue as you continue to grow professionally?

In the next few years, I see my role focused on building platforms and teams that expand access to these captive strategies.

Captives continue to grow; the industry is responding to organisations that seek greater control and predictability in their cost of risk. I’m excited about helping companies explore new applications for captives, whether that means expanding lines of coverage, addressing emerging risks or integrating captives with their broader risk financing goals.

I’m also passionate about education in the industry. We have a responsibility to help develop the next generation of captive professionals; this is something I hope to continue for many years.

Many of the FORTY Under 40 winners are recognised for both business success and broader impact – how do you balance professional excellence with contributions to your community or industry landscape?

I believe we all move forward when people invest time in education, mentorship, and relationships beyond their daily work.

For me, that has included contributing through education of individual producers and teams – this is a great way to give back, while also encouraging new ideas and perspectives with other professionals.

Outside work, staying involved with my local community and being engaged and present with family helps to maintain balance and perspective. I have a responsibility to be a good leader in my home, before I ever think about professional success.

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