Brokers under 30 make up 11% of Australia’s insurance broking workforce. So do brokers aged 60 and above.
That single figure – drawn from the National Insurance Brokers Association’s (NIBA) Data to Direction report published in June 2026 – captures the central tension in a new piece of research released this week.
Pathways to Professionalism: Developing the Next Generation, published September 23 by NIBA, examines how brokers enter the profession, how education shapes their development, and how skill requirements shift across a career. Produced in partnership with QBE and drawing on CoreData survey data, it is the fourth and final report in NIBA’s sector insights series.
Read next: NIBA guide puts broker responsibilities in focus on cash settlements
Brokers managed $35.6 billion in intermediated gross written premiums in the year to June 30, 2025 – close to half of all general insurance written in Australia from a total market of $77.9 billion – with the broker-placed segment growing at a compound annual rate of 6.1% over the prior decade, ahead of the broader market’s 5.7% CAGR.
The workforce behind that volume skews heavily toward the middle. The 40-49 cohort is the largest at 31%, followed by 30-39 at 28%. The median age is 44.
In a 2025 submission to the Productivity Commission’s workforce inquiry, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) confirmed that approximately 30% of the current insurance workforce is set to reach or exceed retirement age by 2030.
The profession is growing at volume while its most experienced people approach the exit and early-career entrants remain the smallest cohort in the workforce.
Entry into the profession has been informal. Most practitioners arrived through referrals, exposure, or adjacent industries rather than structured recruitment.
The generational data points to a shift. Among brokers aged 18 to 29, 38% entered through a job search. Among those aged 50 and above, 41% transitioned from insurance companies. The insurer-to-broker pipeline that historically fed the profession is narrowing, with no direct replacement.
The report identifies two education models operating across the sector. A qualification-led pathway is more common at larger firms and among younger entrants. An experience-led pathway remains dominant at smaller firms and older cohorts.
NIBA’s membership spans more than 380 firms, from large multinational brokers and national networks to small and medium-sized businesses operating across metropolitan and regional Australia. The new research highlights differences in how brokers enter and develop within the profession, including greater reliance on experience-led pathways among some cohorts.
Among brokers aged 18 to 29, 48% hold a bachelor's degree, compared with 15% of those aged 60 and above. A university degree is not required under the industry’s standard qualification pathway, which includes vocational insurance-broking qualifications, but the figures point to a more highly educated profile among younger entrants.
The report’s most operationally significant finding concerns how sharply required capabilities shift as brokers advance and how rarely that transition is managed deliberately.
Early-career brokers are assessed on willingness to learn, communication, and digital literacy. Mid-career success requires commercial awareness, strategic thinking, negotiation, and risk insight. Senior brokers are defined by specialisation, industry networks, and strategic judgment.
These are not variations on the same role. Across seven career journeys featured in the report, learning happened through exposure and mentorship at transition points – not through any consistent framework. Mentorship remains the primary mechanism for transferring institutional knowledge from senior to junior practitioners, and it only works while experienced people remain in the business.
NIBA requires individual members to complete a minimum of 25 CPD points each calendar year, including at least 17.5 structured points. QPIB holders are also required to complete 25 CPD points annually.
The report finds 76% of brokers regard current CPD standards as appropriate. Two-thirds feel prepared for increased education requirements.
One in three, then, does not – in a profession where the formal floor leaves a significant gap between minimum compliance and the commercial judgment the role increasingly demands.
Talent attraction and retention ranked as the third-highest challenge for Australian insurers in 2026, up from seventh the prior year, according to Gallagher Bassett’s The Carrier Perspective: 2026 Claims Insights, with over three-quarters of Australian insurers reporting difficulty finding qualified candidates in the past 12 months.
NIBA CEO Richard Klipin said the profession must now apply deliberate effort to its people. “We’ve set the agenda, proven the value, and measured the scale. Now we’re turning to the foundation that sustains all of it: the people. If broking is to remain a modern, trusted advisory profession, we need to be as deliberate about developing the next generation of brokers as we are about advocating for them,” he said.
NIBA president Nick Cook said the profession’s organic growth is the problem to address. “The findings show a profession that is resilient and adaptive, but one that has grown organically rather than by design. The opportunity now is alignment: connecting entry pathways to education, and education to the way careers actually progress. Do that, and we secure not just the next generation of brokers, but the future leadership and resilience of the profession,” Cook said.
QBE interim managing director, business, Australia Pacific, Lorelle Hillman said: “By investing in talent and strengthening career pathways, we can ensure that the insurance industry continues to attract capable people and remains well positioned to serve clients into the future.”
Read next: Record broker participation puts insurer performance assessments in focus
NIBA has not waited for the report to act. Its 2026 mentoring program recorded a 50% increase in participation to nearly 150 participants nationally. The “Insure Your Future” initiative, led by NIBA, targets prospective entrants with information on career pathways into insurance broking and an employer directory. The 2026 NIBA Convention in October also includes dedicated Young Professionals programming, including a masterclass and networking event.
Whether that activity is sufficient to shift the 11% figure before the retirement wave of 2030 remains the open question. The median broker is 44. The largest cohort is in its 40s. The research gives the profession its clearest picture yet of the problem. What it builds from here will determine whether the next generation is developed by design or by default.
