Connecticut’s insurance industry has been taking stock of its year, and a new report says the state should still pride itself on being the insurance capital of the world.
The annual study comes from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the industry cluster, Connecticut Insurance and Financial Services.
PwC’s Keith Hubert told Connecticut Public Radio he hopes the report will dispel some myths. “One of the challenges is, we kind of got away from viewing ourselves as the insurance capital of the world,” Hubert explains.
The report says that in fact, Connecticut still has the highest concentration of insurance jobs in the nation, at 2.7 percent of its workforce, or more than 60,000 jobs. That includes almost 800 actuaries, whose average salary is north of $120,000 a year.
Hubert said that kind of concentration of talent has a gravitational pull. “I think companies have identified that, and figured that out and said we need to leverage that and build more of our team in Connecticut or in the city of Hartford.”
One relatively new development for the state is the growth of what’s known as Insurtech; largely startup companies developing digital tools for the industry.
“Most insurance executives would tell you they’re behind - in terms of thinking about utilizing the digital capabilities and being innovative,” said Hubert.
Insurtech companies themselves have figured out that physical proximity to the big companies will get them noticed. The city of Hartford particularly has put some effort into fostering these companies with office space and resources, while the state has been organizing competitions for them to showcase their work.
It’s just part of a new wave that the state hopes will consolidate and preserve its position as an international insurance hub.
