The fight for experienced insurance talent has moved into the courtroom, but a leadership consultant says the industry’s retention problem starts long before anyone files a lawsuit.
Dr. Christine W. Thorpe (pictured), founder and CEO of Stronger Tomorrow, a New Jersey-based firm that runs curated gatherings for senior executives, said the push to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) is pulling some leaders away from the human skills their businesses depend on.
“Some executives I’ve spoken to across industries – including insurance leaders – are saying similarly that they don’t know people,” Thorpe said. “They are more interested in the technology side of getting things going, but connecting with people is very difficult. So ultimately what’s happening is they’re driving further into technology, moving away from people, and there’s a disconnect in how they go about building a new pipeline.”
The cost is visible in earnings reports. Marsh excluded $30 million in restrictive covenant litigation costs from its third-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings, as Insurance Business reported in its look at how Marsh spent $30 million in a single quarter fighting rivals over staff. The case is part of a wave of brokerage poaching lawsuits involving Howden US, Brown & Brown and Aon that followed Howden’s US retail launch in mid-2025.
“We need to have an understanding of the mindset of the talent that’s being poached. Do you understand why they want to leave?” Thorpe said.
Younger professionals, she said, are no longer keeping their heads down in hopes of a payoff later. They want quality of life and meaningful work now, and see themselves as just as valuable as the firms recruiting them.
“If these companies feel that they’re doing their new hires or their talent a favor and give them the bare minimum, they will leave,” she said. “People have been quiet quitting. People have been showing up and then leaving in short periods of time because, quite frankly, they don’t feel like they belong to a community.”
Thorpe recalled a woman in her 20s who told her: “I won’t commit to a role that makes me feel like I am just being used. I believe I have something more to offer, and I’m looking to be in an environment that’s going to value all of me – not just the part that shows up on a daily basis.”
Automation adds to the pressure. Thorpe said HR talent contacts tell her many companies have stopped hiring, asking fewer people to do more and handing everything else to technology.
Aon CEO Greg Case has made a related argument, explaining why an insurance AI strategy is only half the equation without investment in people.
“So for executive leaders who are used to doing old business and thinking that you’re going to replace people because AI is going to come in and do those simple, push-button roles that the younger generation isn’t doing – recognize that at some point, when you’re no longer there, who’s going to run that company?” she said. “Are you setting AI up to take over entirely until there are no more jobs? There is a human responsibility that needs to be taken into consideration – not just the bottom line of the dollar.”
For agency and carrier leaders under pressure to move faster, Thorpe sees efficiency and relationship-building as interdependent.
“One hand washes the other,” she said. “If I’m building a connection with a client, that connection, with time and rootedness, enables the hand that’s being efficient in managing the work with the client to go on longer. If I don’t have that client, that speed and efficiency will ultimately dry up – because where is your client base coming from?”
That means protecting the time producers spend with clients on the golf course or over coffee, she said, so clients see a trusted partner rather than a transaction.
The same thinking drove Stronger Tomorrow’s shift from workplace wellness consulting to curated, device-free gatherings, many for executive women in male-dominated industries. It is also the subject of Thorpe’s new book, “Choose Your Circle: The Relationships That Shape Your Life, Work, and Legacy.”
Heading into 2027, Thorpe said the advantage worth protecting is one technology cannot copy.
“If we recognize the superpower of the human being, it’s separate from what any AI piece of technology can do for you,” she said. “Being able to communicate with someone and connect on a deeper level is what’s going to bring business in. It’s what’s going to ensure that you have a system with longevity.”
