How CICA is enticing a new generation of employees to captives

It is probably fair to surmise that few people grow up dreaming about careers in insurance, let alone captives. But the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) is stepping up its efforts to show young people that the industry can provide exciting and rewarding careers for those that pursue it.

CICA’s NEXTGen Young and New Professionals Task Force, which includes a mentorship program, partnerships and outreach with university risk management and insurance courses, is designed to raise the profile of the captive insurance industry.

“Even if young professionals are looking for insurance industry jobs, chances are pretty good they have never heard of captive insurance,” said Dan Towle, president at CICA. “But we are seeing that once they become involved in captive insurance, they are passionate about our industry.”

There are no figures detailing the demographic profile of employees in the captive sector specifically. But In the insurance industry more broadly 28% of the workforce are millennials, with the average employee age 59, according to a report by Old Republic Insurance Group, The Future of the Insurance Industry: Millennials and Beyond.

This creates a challenge for the whole insurance industry, and for captives specifically, as a growing number of employees approach retirement age. “We want enough good people with the diverse skills needed to fill jobs opening up due to retirements as well as new jobs being created,” said Towle.

CICA reports it has had “a very enthusiastic response” to its mentorship program, which is geared toward young and mid-career professionals in the first three to five years of their captive career. The program ensures they receive counsel, advice and support from seasoned industry veterans.

There are 50 people in the mentorship program, including unmatched mentors. “Our goal was to have two mentors for every one mentee, which ensures we have plenty of options for our mentees,” said Towle.

CICA’s university outreach efforts attempt to encourage students to consider careers in captive insurance. Towle said: “We need to better formalise internships and job opportunities for college students if we want the captive industry to be able to compete with other insurance career options. Many of these students are securing their jobs today through internship opportunities.”

CICA is also partnering with academic and credentialing organisations to help support students and seasoned professionals meet their education goals. In 2018 it expanded its partnership with the International Center for Captive Insurance Education (ICCIE) to enable ICCIE students who have earned their associate in captive insurance (ACI) to receive a complimentary one-year membership with CICA, including an invitation to participate in the CICA mentorship program.

Towle notes there are more risk management students graduating than ever before, and says students majoring in risk management and actuarial sciences show an interest in the role of captives in risk management, when given the opportunity to hear about it.

“Captive insurance is on the cutting edge of risk management and provides interesting and rewarding careers with the purpose, stability and creative problems solving young professionals are looking for,” he said. “There are always new risks to manage and new opportunities for captives on the horizon.”