Groundhog Day
The insurance industry has an image problem
Today is Groundhog Day and I am told that Punxsutawny Phil saw his shadow this morning, so we are in for six more weeks of winter. This is bad news for those of you who don’t like winter, but where I come from (Chicago) we are generally delighted if the snow melts by May. I love the winters here in Virginia and would happily take six more weeks of it if this also meant the May flies would not show up until June (after I have left town for New England).
But I digress.
What I really want to comment on today (very briefly) is the insurance industry’s image problem with the current generation of college students, perhaps exacerbated by those insipid TV ads that seem to run during sporting events—actually I like the Progressive ones about “becoming your parents”—as well as by the mass media characterization of insurance salesmen as a bunch of back-slapping numbskulls like Ned Ryerson (pictured above) in the film Groundhog Day. There is unfortunately some truth to the Ned Ryerson stereotype—I have known a few insurance salesmen (always men) very much like this—but it is largely an historical relic. I think it is fair to say that any Ned Ryersons still working in the insurance business today will soon find themselves out of a job, most likely replaced by a computer with a clever algorithm.
Insurance is a dynamic and challenging business well worth considering as a future career for those of you with strong quantitative backgrounds. The specific functional areas in which you might begin your career include risk estimation, investment management, business analytics, sales and marketing. And you don’t have to be an actuary to get into the insurance business (although it helps). A lot of lawyers also make good money suing, defending and advising insurance companies on some pretty complicated (and big bucks) matters. There is a lot of money to be made in the insurance industry and I would like to see more of it earned by my students.
The insurance industry is currently confronting a significant demographic HR challenge, as a generation of senior leaders is now approaching (or well into) retirement age. Some of these folks have made a lot of money over their careers and, being super-cognizant of the mortality tables as they are, they would like some more free time in which to enjoy it. Students, this is your opportunity.
If I still haven’t persuaded you about the merits of insurance as a career, consider that Warren Buffet made most of his money in the property-casualty business, a path being followed by W&M alum Todd Boehly, who I know would like to hire more talented W&M students.
I will be writing more on this topic in a few weeks as my Financial Services class gets into our Insurance module, but for now let me just say “watch this space”.
In the meantime, perhaps you would like to consider doing what I am going to do this evening— and what I do every other February 2nd—watch my fellow Chicagoans Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in that film classic Groundhog Day. Suffice it to say that this is a film one can watch over and over and over again.
If you don’t have time to watch the entire film, at least watch this short clip featuring our friend Ned Ryerson. It may not be the dramatic equivalent of the bank run scene from It’s a Wonderful Life, but it is quite amusing. I think you will enjoy it.