Insurance has a glamour problem – or perhaps, a lack of glamour problem—and that accounts for the dearth of young people flocking to the field. At least that’s according to Dina Godinho, the early 30s partner and account executive at Jones Deslauriers Insurance Management in Toronto.
“The industry needs to do a better job of glamourizing itself,” she says, adding that it’s a matter of poor brand awareness. The University of Toronto CRM explains, “It’s a lack of industry knowledge, and knowing what the industry is about and what kind of jobs and careers are available. Our industry itself can do a better job in terms of getting the word out about what’s available as a career path. We don’t do enough recruiting in terms of making the industry attractive to young people.”
Hence the lack of awareness among the young of the potential offered by a career in insurance – which is all the more confounding for Godinho considering that she sees the industry as offering a perfect fit for Generation Y.
“Millennials, from what I can see, they kind of want to dictate their own schedules and set their own paths, and with insurance there’s a lot of different paths you can take.” And, she points out, insurance offers another attractive trait for the newbie: low barriers to entry.
“There’s so many positions in the industry, that you could definitely slot your way in one way or another.”
Certainly tenderness of years is no problem for Godinho, who specializes in professional liability and executive liability in the technology sector.
“Most of my tech clients are my age, if not younger; they’re proactive types of clients, so that you don’t have that barrier in terms of being a younger person.”
Indeed in the case of Godinho, who had a leading role in the development of JDIMI’s TechAssurance program, age lends a level of comfort to such a relationship.
“It’s more peer to peer and they look at you as an advisor rather than someone who’s talking down to them or speaking at them”
Whatever else happens, Godinho says, this shortfall in new talent entering the industry is likely to have consequences before too long.
“There’s not enough succession planning going on. A lot of the industry is average mid- to late 40s on the broker side, so there’s going to be a need to fill those positions in the next 10-15 years.”
