To fill the talent gap, new entrants must learn to do it all 

Young entrants to the commercial insurance industry who want to specialize in a certain line should first ensure they become jacks-of-all-trades, experts at the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA) Canadian Claims Summit said Friday. 

During a discussion about the industry’s talent gap, panellists were asked whether new entrants to the industry should focus on becoming generalists or specialists, especially considering many highly specialized industry experts are expected to retire soon.  

Specifically, an estimated 8.5% of the P&C workforce is expected to retire within the next five years, according to the Insurance Institute of Canada’s 2023 demographics report. Retirements will be felt most heavily in management positions, with 15% of senior managers retiring within that timeframe. 

But those specialized skills acquired by seasoned professionals come with time — and panellists urged new adjuster entrants not to fast-track them.  

“To really specialize in a line of coverage later, you do have to understand how those policies can interplay, or how those coverages could potentially fall across multiple lines of coverage,” said Nicole Ng, chief claims officer and managing director at Marsh Canada. 

“There really is no monoline if you want to get into a specialty. There has to be a priority of payment understanding, how a property and a [general liability] policy could potentially work together, how environmental may come into play, how boiler and machinery [works],” she said.  

“Getting into the industry, I think it’s important to know all of those things. And as risks emerge, that’s your opportunity to take that knowledge base, that foundation, and say: ‘This is how I can harness it to become a specialized person in this space,’” she said. “But I think it would be very hard to just come in and become a monoline specialty, one-product person.” 

David Storey, claims manager at QBE Insurance Canada, echoed the sentiment. “If you want to be a good casualty adjuster and manage subrogation claims, know how to handle a first-party claim and vice versa,” he said. “Specializing is good to a certain extent, but having that depth of knowledge across the entire enterprise, and how it all works together…is important.” 

The benefit to specializing in the future is that professionals can carve a career path out of their niche expertise. That requires active promotion of that niche, said one panellist.

“Specialization means people can own a category of a market and not just work within it, but actively try to promote it, grow it, and grow their own team — which means it’s a career path for them as well,” said Jamie Catania, CEO and technical director of collision reconstruction at 30 Forensic Engineering. 

When adjusters do earn enough industry tenure to specialize their experience, catastrophe specialization is in high demand in claims roles, according to Impact Recruitment’s Insurance Salary Guide 2025.