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1 June 2024NewsAnalysis

FORTY under 40: Przemek Parkitny

Przemek Parkitny, Senior account executive, Aon

Przemek Parkitny manages a portfolio of captives for domestic and international private and Fortune companies. He joined Aon as an account executive in 2023. Less than a year later, he was promoted to senior account executive and currently manages a team of multidisciplinary professionals.

Parkitny’s rapid ascent can be attributed to a trifecta of skills and habits. The first is a passion for continuous learning and education. Since starting his career in the captive insurance industry in 2019, Parkitny has earned ARe, AINS, ARM, AIAF, and CPCU certifications.

He has a talent for quickly understanding complex relationships between parents and captives—and identifying creative opportunities to improve efficiency. Parkitny is a gifted diplomat and communicator, despite the fact that English is his second language.

Given this combination of factors, it’s not surprising he has been given the most difficult and confusing captive insurance assignments at every company where he’s worked. His colleagues know him as the person to go to when no-one can figure out what’s going on.

How did you become involved in captive insurance?

My captives career began in 2019 when I was working as an accountant for a company that had a captive. During one of my first assignments, I stumbled upon the financial statements for the captive and did a double-take. I’d always thought of a company’s financial statements as a puzzle, where all the pieces fit together to provide a picture of how the company works and makes money.

I’d never heard of captives at the time and was fascinated by what I saw. I started staying late every day to delve deeper into the financial statements and do my own research to understand how it all worked. Once I was confident I understood how this parent company’s captive structure worked, I approached the owner of the company to ask questions and offer recommendations. He was impressed enough that he offered me a job as a captive manager on the spot.

At first, I spent a lot of time working closely with the accountants, underwriters, and auditors. I wanted to get an intimate understanding of their roles and processes so I could understand how the discipline works from every angle. I still do.

This approach has been an effective strategy for building a comprehensive understanding of captive management. It’s also given me the perspective I need to collaborate with and manage multidisciplinary professionals and teams.

What are the biggest challenges of working in this industry, and what do you find most rewarding?

In terms of challenges, I’ve noticed a bit of a paradox in the captives industry. While the industry is eager to recruit new talent, there is a negative bias toward younger people. When I started as a captive manager in my mid-20s, the majority of my peers were much older. I believe we need to create more opportunities for new talent in our industry, but I’m convinced we also need to prioritise building trust, developing new talent, and allowing space for mistakes.

As for rewards, the most gratifying aspect for me was overcoming the challenges and knowledge gaps I had to close to serve my clients and gain the trust I needed to collaborate and implement changes.

Captives are independent financial structures that offer far more than just insurance. 

What developments do you see ahead for captives?

I see so much potential to collaborate more with the parent companies to understand their challenges and then build tailored solutions using the captive. I’ve seen a lot of people get carried away by all that captives can do that they’ve forgotten the main purpose of the captive—to solve parent company needs.

If the industry were to focus on gaining a deeper understanding of parent company needs, we could use captives more efficiently and develop better solutions.

Would you recommend the captive insurance industry to young people as a future career path?

As I oversaw hiring and internship programmes, I noticed that many young people are introduced to the captives industry as an insurance product. College graduates and entry-level candidates don’t always see the insurance industry as a “sexy” career path. I’m convinced that our industry is more appealing to finance-oriented majors and that we should position captives as a financial product, removing them entirely from the insurance category.

Captives are independent financial structures that offer far more than just insurance.  On a high level, most captives are fully operating companies that offer opportunities in a multitude of areas beyond insurance: investments, management, sales, compliance, legislation, startups and more. If positioned strategically, captives could potentially attract and engage a wider range of candidates for the long term.

By reframing captives as an opportunity to experiment, explore, and develop their careers, we can help new talent see the potential and value of entering the captives industry. I’ve found this to be an extremely effective way to attract new hires who are passionate, eager to learn, have an entrepreneurial spirt, and are motivated to explore the world of alternative risk. This is especially true as the captives sector continues to evolve.

Do you think your long-term future remains in the captives market?

I’m not sure what my future holds for the long term. I do know that I’m passionate about business operations and solving complex problems. I believe the captives industry provides a unique opportunity to engage closely with multiple industries and gain first-hand experience overcoming new and complex challenges.

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