The numbers are frightening. And I’m not talking about the economy. No, I’m talking about the aging of the insurance profession. Many of us are reaching the age when, if the economy were better and our 401(k)s weren’t circling the drain, we would be considering retirement.

At some point, we will be leaving the insurance industry for one reason or another. And when the Baby Boomer generation starts its exodus in earnest, it could leave a huge void in the ranks. As was mentioned in my previous article on the War for Talent (Rough Notes October 2008), our industry will need to find approximately 90,000 new employees a year, and we’re not doing a bang-up job of preparing people for insurance employment, or of enticing the non-trained to enter the wonderful world of insurance.

Robert B. Baxter, CPCU, CIC, chief executive officer and general manager of Dryden Mutual Insurance Co., Dryden, New York, was first exposed to an InVEST program at Fowler High School in Syracuse when he was a branch manager for General Accident. When Bob joined Dryden Mutual in 1993, “I wanted to start a program here. I met with one of the teachers at Dryden High School, Linda Bruno, who liked the idea of a program about insurance but pointed out that it couldn’t be a five-day a week class.”

Flexibility

That turned out not to be a problem. InVEST is a malleable program that provides the resources necessary to implement insurance education curricula at the high school, junior college and college levels. Nothing is carved in stone. In fact, the administrators of the program recognize that almost every one of the 235 InVEST programs across the country differs due to geographic location, community need or some other factor. But the mission—to provide insurance education that will produce knowledgeable employees or customers for the insurance industry—remains consistent.

At this point, some of you who may share my own skeptical nature are probably saying “So what? What difference does a program in some small town in New York mean to me?”

Well, it turns out that the program proved to be contagious. Linda Bruno started bragging about the program to other teachers in the area. In 1995, Groton, New York, added an InVEST program to their high school curricula and worked with local agents to provide speakers. A year later, Lansing and Ithaca started programs. In 1997, Trumansburg started a program that was spearheaded by Finger Lakes Fire & Casualty, which has its headquarters in that town. McGraw High School in McGraw, New York, started a program in 2007 after one of its teachers, Pam Coombs, talked to InVEST students from Dryden who were attending an “I Day” in Syracuse, New York.

Bob concludes: “The key point is that this is a program that can work anywhere, it doesn’t cost very much and it’s not that time-consuming. At its worst, the program sends out students who are financially literate and understand and appreciate the importance of insurance in our society. At its best, we reach some talented students who might have gone elsewhere and bring them in to the insurance industry.

“Teachers are extraordinarily enthusiastic once they see it played out,” he continues. “In addition, the InVEST curricula fit very well with the current push to introduce financial literacy within the public school systems. But to be really successful, it must be an insurance community effort. If we can do it here in Dryden, it can be done anywhere.”