Speak Up if You Care …

If you’re like most insurance firms, your workforce is aging. Or, as a friend of mine recently put it, “There’s a lot of gray hair in the room.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you, but the reality is that more than half of many companies’ workers will be retiring in the next 10 to 15 years.

Have you wondered where you’ll find your next rising star? Who will perpetuate your agency? Who will be the CEO in 30 years?

I have taught Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) for 19 years, with 16 of those at University of North Texas (UNT). During that time I’ve seen students go to work for the direct writers, the commercial and personal lines companies, and many private organizations as risk managers. The hiring companies consistently tell me that a degree in risk management and insurance (RMI) is beneficial for several reasons.

A student who has taken several courses in RMI before graduation is ready to hit the ground running (versus an underwater basket-weaving major who has to be convinced that insurance is not an evil capitalist plot to destroy the common worker). One employer even likened our degree plan to at least a year’s worth of on-the-job training.

With the high cost of training and turnover, why would you hire someone who isn’t sure they want to be a part of the industry? Whereas most of us stumbled into an RMI career (although I think I asked Santa one year for a calculator and the new, limited edition “Actuary Barbie.”), a student who has majored or minored in RMI has already demonstrated an interest and a commitment to working alongside the rest of us.

Currently there are only a handful of dedicated RMI programs in the United States. The UNT program is the most comprehensive of any in the Southwest, requiring majors to take seven different courses in RMI, ranging from personal lines to life insurance to commercial casualty. There are several other excellent programs around the state and a couple in Louisiana, as well.

While I’m partial to UNT, affiliation with any of these academic programs gets you first-access to the best talent after graduation. It’s a great investment from a hiring standpoint. It also is very effective advertising and promotion to put your name in front of all those students and professors, all of whom buy or will buy insurance in the near future.

But, even a state-funded, non-profit institution has to consider the bottom line impact of supporting any program, whether academic, athletic or community service-oriented. “Boutique” programs like RMI (and real estate and financial services) are easy items to cut when times are hard. There are schools around the country that once had thriving RMI programs. Now they offer one or two courses in it, if that much.

When you look at U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of the top five RMI programs in the country, the list usually includes Wharton, University of Georgia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Georgia State and Temple. All are excellent programs and I have friends who teach in every single one of them. But I find it a bit troubling that in a state the size of Texas, with two huge insurance markets — Dallas and Houston — we don’t have a single school on that list! There’s not even a school that’s close to Texas on the list.

Yet, ask anyone who has hired my students in the last five to ten years, and they will tell you that about 95 percent of the time (hey, nobody’s perfect) they are absolutely pleased with the decision to hire from our program.

I have some hope for the future of RMI education across the country, because this fall a university in Maine is starting a program. And Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia is gearing up its program, as well, with an endowed professorship named in honor Brian Duperreault (ACE).

Much closer to home, the University of Houston – Downtown has made great strides towards opening an insurance center next year.

Demand a Supply

In each of these cases, the schools created a program in RMI because the industry demanded it. The insurance agents, brokers and companies all spoke in a unified voice to say, “We value this, we need it and we’ll do what we have to, to get it.”

If you care about keeping programs like these alive, then please start making your voice heard. There are lots of ways to do that, but here are my “top five:”

• Find the program in your area and get to know the faculty. Give the students there first shot at jobs when you have them. Participate in school-sponsored events even when you aren’t hiring.
• Volunteer your time and your company re-sources when you can. Offer to host an intern for a day, or a summer. Mentor a student who is a first-generation college student by inviting them to lunch once a month. Invite students when you’re going to a trial that is open to the public, so they can see what a courtroom proceeding is really like.

Once, we had an oil company’s risk management department sponsor two students, plus a faculty member and his wife, to go to Bermuda. The students and professor were allowed to sit in on renewal negotiations with the brokers and insurers. What a learning experience!

When you’ve just wowed a group of employees or investors with a presentation, send a copy to the professors. See if they need that same presentation given to a class. But please don’t be offended if we don’t use you right away, or if we aren’t able to accept the offer to speak. If we honored every such request, we would never have time to teach!

Sponsor an etiquette luncheon for a group of students who really would love to know what fork to use. Or, share the juicy details of a really bizarre claim (names excluded, of course) with a professor who can use it as an example in class.

• Write a letter, or two. Send one to the dean, provost, and/or president of a school that has an RMI program. Copy the other administrators, as well as the board of regents, and maybe even your state representative. A short note that says, “I’m really glad you support RMI education. I value the program at your school because … I am doing this to help support it …” gets the message across.
• Make sure your trade associations are actively supporting and promoting the RMI programs in your area. UNT has been blessed to have the support of several Texas organizations like Independent Insurance Agents of Texas, Insurance Council of Texas, and local chapters of RIMS, CPCU, NAIW and many others. Meeting the professionals in these organizations has been a major reason many students have changed their majors to RMI.
• Finally, donate money specifically to RMI programs at your chosen school. Universities do not route donations to small programs unless instructed to. I have never sent a check to my alma mater, the University of Georgia, without specifying that it go to a specific scholarship fund (for insurance majors, of course!) Otherwise, the department that got me started on what has been a very fulfilling career will never see a penny of it.

Meanwhile, keep me in mind on that Bermuda deal.