New data from the Lloyd's Market Association's Claims Talent Survey showed an increase in new entrants with under three years' experience within the Lloyd's claims workforce, alongside a reduction in highly experienced professionals with more than15 years in the industry.
The survey, a follow-up to the LMA's 2023 study, drew responses from more than half of Lloyd's managing agents and confirms that talent remains a top priority for claims leaders.
The proportion of claims professionals with 15 or more years of experience fell from 37% in 2023 to 31% in 2025, while new entrants, a category spanning university graduates, school leavers and recruits from outside the industry, now make up 52% of junior roles, up from 37% two years earlier.
The LMA said the responses, representing just over half the managing agent community, point to an early but clear shift in the demographic profile of the claims workforce.
Talent sourcing patterns are also changing. Some 69% of hires are still recruited from within the existing Lloyd's market talent pool, down from 74% in 2023, while the recruitment of experienced adjusters with 15 or more years' experience from within the market fell from 22% to 17% over the same period. Use of recruitment agencies dropped by 16% and internal recruitment by 6%, while use of LinkedIn as a sourcing channel rose by 11%.
Heads of claims cited several persistent challenges, including poaching from a shrinking pool of experienced talent, difficulty retaining staff after investing in their training, and reluctance among candidates to commit to four days a week in the office. The five-to-seven-year and 15-plus-year experience cohorts remain the hardest to recruit for, with a continuing trend of candidates seeking senior roles without the requisite background, and salary expectations continuing to outpace experience levels.
Hiring strategies have broadened in response, with growth in recruitment of school leavers, graduates and candidates from outside insurance, and a shift in outside-industry hiring away from a previous focus on solicitors towards broader transferable skills in data, risk management, digital capability and communication.
When asked how their view of future risks and opportunities had changed, heads of claims pointed most often to the pace of technological change and automation, alongside a perceived reduction in market-wide knowledge and expertise. Data and analytics, technical expertise, customer communication, relationship management, portfolio management, and adaptability and strategic thinking were named as the skills most frequently cited as critical for the future.
The LMA's findings sit within a broader talent challenge already well documented across the London market.
allagher Bassett's 2026 Carrier Perspective report found that talent attraction and retention had jumped from seventh to first place among UK insurers' top business concerns within a year, with 72% of UK respondents reporting greater difficulty finding qualified candidates and 48% citing claims management and adjusting as facing the most acute shortages.
That pressure is compounded by demographics: more than half of London market employees are aged over 40, and 26% of the wider UK insurance workforce is over 50, meaning a significant share of institutional knowledge is approaching retirement at the same time as entry-level hiring is accelerating.
The market has responded with a coordinated push on early careers. The London Market Group, working alongside Lloyd's, the Chartered Insurance Institute, the LMA, the International Underwriting Association and the London and International Insurance Brokers' Association, runs a joined-up talent ecosystem spanning school and university engagement, apprenticeships, technical academies and mentoring, aimed explicitly at building a sustainable pipeline as the market's age profile skews older.
Programmes such as the LMG's Futures Academy and Apprenticeship Discovery have drawn dozens of London market firms and consistently oversubscribed demand from students, evidence that, as the LMA's own survey now confirms, the market is having more success attracting new entrants than it is retaining senior expertise.
Janine Powell, claims director, said claims has a growing story to tell as a career destination, and that the future of claims depends on getting the balance right. "It's great we're attracting new talent, and must continue initiatives to do so, but we cannot afford to lose the depth, judgement and experience that sit within our mid-career professionals," she said.
Powell said the digitalisation of claims is evident, and that embracing AI and automation in the right way could free up space for higher-value work and create genuine demand for new technical professionals, opening doors to different talent pipelines. She added that what being a "good" claims professional looks like is shifting.
"However, what isn't is the human dimension of the role," she said. "The market's aim now should be to develop claims professionals who can combine technical and human insights, as both are essential to the evolving market."
