Kate Greaves (pictured above), owner of Goldsworthy General Insurance Services (GGIS) in Brisbane, says a growing crisis is facing Australia’s diminishing number of small, often family run brokerages: the struggle to find and retain qualified staff.
Greaves, a third-generation broker with more than 20 years in the industry, said the competition for talent is fierce, with larger corporate brokers luring candidates away and too few young people considering insurance as a career. Brokers, insurers and recruiters often tell Insurance Business about the industry’s talent shortages. With about 30% of the industry’s professionals expected to retire within the next five years, concerns are growing. But Greaves – NIBA’s 2025 Queensland Insurance Broker of the Year – said that the smallest brokerages are bearing the brunt.
“Not everyone wants to work for a small or medium enterprise,” said Greaves. “There’s a lot of competition out there and while joining a larger network is always an option, we pride ourselves on offering personalized service and building relationships that span generations.”
But the brokerage director said it is getting harder to find the right people. Greaves’ experience is echoed across the sector. Recruiters point to a limited pipeline of young talent entering the industry, with insurance often overlooked as a career option because many young people don’t realize the breadth of opportunities.
Which leaves smaller brokerages with a serious talent gap that complicates other issues.
For example, regulatory burdens for brokers are increasing and these can also be particularly irksome for smaller firms. Prudential Standard CPS 230 and Privacy Act reforms are just two examples of recent regulation that brokers need to include, where necessary, in their work practices.
This struggle to find talent is pushing some firms into mergers and acquisition. Some brokers have told Insurance Business that this can be the best way to deal some of the current recruitment and compliance challenges. The bigger scale and access to more expertise, they say, can help ease both issues.
Read next: Is CPS 230 an industry “game changer”?
But Greaves argued that small, often family run firms like hers have a unique service proposition. The M&A option would erode this positive point of difference.
“We're a small brokerage and we're able to give a very personalized service to our clients and to have really great relationships that span many generations with our business – so I think that actually holds us apart from other brokers,” she said.
For her, education and outreach is the answer. Greaves believes industry bodies like NIBA and ANZIIF could play a vital role in tackling the staffing shortage by ramping up these efforts.
“The industry isn’t seen as sexy or fun, but I don’t know another field that offers so many opportunities and no real ceiling for growth,” she says. “We need to do more to show young people what a rewarding career insurance can be.”
Like older professionals, even many of the current crop of youngsters in the industry found their way into insurance jobs through family or by “stumbling” into a position.
For example, James Still, NIBA’s 2025 National Young Broker of the Year, was originally set on becoming a psychologist. He only discovered how much he liked insurance work when he returned to help in the family brokerage after his father had a car accident.
The efforts that need ramping up include mentoring programs, university partnerships and school outreach campaigns. For example, NIBA’s “Future Brokers” program that connects students with industry mentors and offers internships at small brokerages.
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