AIRROC's The Legacy Life

Chris Hampshire is the Vice President of Gallagher Bassett’s Carrier Practice and the President and Chair of the CPCU Leadership Council. In this episode of The Legacy Life, Chris discusses his career, his work with the CPCU Society and his thoughts on how to bring new talent into the insurance industry. 

“I think we need to be talking about the social good that we do,” he says. “I don’t think we talk about this nearly enough… We don’t talk about the fact that we’re the second responders enough… We’re the folks who are there to help kind of put the pieces back together financially.” Chris also notes that insurance today is one of those industries where if you’re willing to work hard and put in the effort, you can write your own ticket, often from the comfort of your own home. 

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

We’re talking to another NextGen rising star in this week’s episode of The Legacy Life: Richard Burrows, Principal Associate at Weightmans LLP. Richard discusses his current role at Weightmans, his career path thus far, his love of emerging risks and some recent initiatives in the UK designed to bring new talent into legal careers. Richard also discusses the benefits of joining professional associations. He can speak from experience considering that as of the date of this episode’s release, Richard is the Chairman of the Insurance & Reinsurance Legacy Association Young Professionals Group (“IRLA YPG”).

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

We’re back for Season 3 of AIRROC’s the Legacy Life! This week we’re talking to a NextGen rising star, Megan Kuzniewski. Megan works for Enstar Group as an AVP and legal counsel in M&A Corporate Development. Megan started her career as outside counsel for insurance companies. She decided to go in house at Enstar about a year ago. Megan talks about what she loves about her job and how supportive other professionals in the industry have been. She also discusses the opportunities for growth and career development for young professionals that she sees in the legacy space.

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

In our season finale, Ed Hochberg, Head of Global Risk Solutions at Guy Carpenter, stops by to discuss his legacy career and his thoughts on why broking firms have been successful at attracting and retaining young talent. "I think that we offer a pretty wide variety of things to get involved with,” he says. He notes that providing challenging and rewarding work to young professionals, as well as putting young professionals in positions where they can really learn the business, has helped with retention. “Money only gets you so far. It’s important, but people have to want to come to work every day, and I think we’ve done a good job with that as a business.”

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

We are joined by Paul Ginnett, CEO of Allianz Reinsurance America, in this week’s episode of AIRROC’s The Legacy Life. 

Like so many of us, Paul fell into insurance. “After I got out of college, I was, like many graduates, I was in need of a job quickly. The week I graduated also coincided with the birth of my daughter, and so that was extra motivation to get to work,” he laughs. That was nearly 35 years ago. He found a job at a TPA and gradually worked his way up. The rest is history.  

Looking back at his career, Paul reflects fondly on his time as a field adjuster. He particularly enjoyed meeting with policyholders who were entrepreneurs or small business owners. “I really liked liability claims that came out of small businesses. To me, it was just fascinating… You would meet with entrepreneurs. You’d meet with small business people, and they were involved in these…very interesting things.” He recalls being fascinated by the different types of businesses he encountered and that he enjoyed interacting with such creative people. 

Tune in to this week’s episode to learn more!

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

Tom Hodson, President and General Counsel of Genesis Legacy Solutions, LLC, joins us for this episode of The Legacy Life. Tom grew up in a family of reinsurance brokers (G.L. Hodson & Son, anyone?) and has spent much of his career as an insurance/reinsurance regulatory attorney. However, these days, he finds himself doing a lot of marketing. A few years ago, Tom and several of his colleagues set up Genesis Legacy Solutions, an entity that focuses on runoff solutions for small insurance companies, captives and risk retention groups. He has been working hard to grow the business ever since. 

When it comes to getting young professionals interested in insurance careers, he notes that the insurance industry could do a better job advertising the exciting opportunities posed by the alternative risk marketplace. “In the alternative risk marketplace, like captives, like risk retentions groups… There’s a lot of creativity that’s happening… It’s an interesting concept trying to solve problems that business people have,” he says. “There are other risks that businesses face on a daily basis that need innovative solutions.” 

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

In this episode of AIRROC’s The Legacy Life we are talking to Keith Kaplan, Chief Liquidation Officer of Bedivere Insurance Company. When asked how he ended up in his role, Keith responds: “How did I get to be a liquidator? You just need to go back 20 years to when I was working at Reliance Insurance Company, and the Pennsylvania Insurance Department showed up one day and said: ‘We’re here to help.’” Since then, much of Keith’s career has been spent working with companies in liquidation. He explains the liquidation process and discusses how the handling of insurance or reinsurance business in liquidation differs from the handling and managing of more typical runoff.

Regarding getting more young professionals interested in insurance and reinsurance careers, Keith echoes the sentiments of many other guests to the podcast and says that the industry needs to work on its marketing. He notes that the runoff space of the insurance industry alone is huge and there are careers available for a wide range of skills. “In the runoff area in particular, you have a very gray workforce in management with a big gap behind them,” he says. For young professionals who dedicate themselves to runoff right now, “the opportunities are unlimited.” 

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

We have not one but two guests this week: Marty Rosemann, Head of Transaction and Legacy Management, and David Presley, Senior Legacy Origination Manager, both from Swiss Re. Like many of our guests, both started their careers as lawyers and through pure happenstance shifted into legacy reinsurance over time. “We all start there,” David says of the legal profession, “but we end in legacy.”

Working in insurance and reinsurance has led them to different places and exposed them to other cultures they would not have experienced in other careers. “[W]e need to brand ourselves as an industry better, so that people see this as a ‘glamor’ career, not a ‘sit in your cube’ kind of career,” Marty says after reflecting on his time in London and working with his team in South Africa. “I think we do need to be more present as an industry at college campuses, talking about what we do...”

But getting the next generation interested in insurance and reinsurance careers in college might not be enough. “I think we’ve got to think about retention, right? So now, once we get the young people in, how to we keep them?” David asks, noting that there are a lot of opportunities out there for young people today. “[T]he bottom line is, when we go to things like conferences or we’re having these meetings…  It’s incumbent upon us to actually bring along the next generation.”

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

We're doing something a little different this week! Instead of talking to someone who has spent years in the insurance industry, we're talking to someone at the very beginning of her career. Oumou Tounkara was AIRROC's 2021 Trish Getty Scholarship winner. She is a student at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, majoring in Risk Management and Business Intelligence and Analytics and minoring in Data Science. 

Part of what motivated Oumou to learn about risk management and insurance was an incident that happened to her father's business when she was growing up in Guinea. "I come from a country where insurance… is not seen as an important expense," she says. "People are just self-insuring most of the time and when there's a loss they pay out of pocket and if there's no money, well, they will have to deal with the consequences." When she started studying in the United States and realized that insurance might have been able to help her family and others, she decided to make bringing insurance back to Guinea a priority. 

Expect big things from Oumou in the future. We're confident she has a bright career ahead of her!

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html 

Welcome back! Season 2 of AIRROC’s The Legacy Life kicks off with Glen Mulready, Insurance Commissioner for the State of Oklahoma. As many of our listeners will know, Commissioner Mulready was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Insurance Business Transfers (“IBT”) Act, a mechanism that allows for the absolute transfer of books of insurance business from one company to another. 

Through his work with the Oklahoma Insurance Department, Commissioner Mulready has expanded internship opportunities in his department and is exploring the possibility of holding a “next gen” type conference for young professionals. His department has also begun working with school-aged children to create awareness of the insurance industry. He notes: “We have an employee who is out in the schools, even at the elementary school level, doing Insurance 101… We’re trying to reach…kids in the classroom in different settings.” Commissioner Mulready believes that creating opportunities to expose young people to the many facets of the insurance industry is a great way to generate interest and bring more new talent to the space.

This podcast is brought to you by AIRROC, the ONLY U.S. organization dedicated to insurance and reinsurance companies with legacy business in their portfolios. We serve as the convening hub of the legacy market, bringing companies together to advance transactions, share expertise, develop leaders, and strengthen the industry. Learn more about what we do at AIRROC.org or https://www.airroc.org/

Find more information about AIRROC NextGen at https://www.airroc.org/nextgen.html