Bermuda’s insurance-linked securities industry must stay on top of its talent needs if it wants to develop, an insurance industry veteran has warned.

Speaking at the ILS Bermuda Convergence 2025 conference, Brian Duperreault, the executive chairman of Cedar Trace, said talent was expensive but if ILS was to expand into other lines of business it needed to have the right people in place.

Kathleen Reardon, the chief executive of Hiscox Re & ILS said: “We are in the midst of another talent war. We do this every couple of cycles.”

She said it was important to nurture talent and make sure employees were constantly learning.

The chief executive did not elaborate further on the talent war but several large firms with Bermuda offices have been in the news lately due to ongoing lawsuits over employee poaching.

A shrinking pool of available workers, partly due to baby-boomer retirement, is driving competition for skilled workers not just in insurance, but in many industries.

In April, Marsh accused rival Aon, of leveraging insider knowledge to steal 20 employees.

Three months later, Marsh USA filed a complaint in Manhattan court alleging that four senior executives conspired with Howden in London to rapidly launch their American operation, luring more than 100 Marsh employees over to them in the process.

Ms Reardon said swiftly developing technological advances such as artificial intelligence were changing the workplace.

“We tell new hires that the job you were hired for will not be the one you retire on,” she said.

She said Bermuda needed to focus more on its digital infrastructure.

“We need to keep up with other hubs that are further along than us with things like artificial intelligence,” she said.

Stephen Velotti, the chief executive officer and chief information officer at Pillar Capital Management said Bermuda was an excellent place to grow younger talent.

“AI has its place but you do not want it to eliminate some of the entry-level positions,” he said.

Mr Velotti said if AI did this, the industry needed to find some other way to bring in fresh talent.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic and work from home rules did a huge disservice to young people in the industry.

“A 22-year-old sitting at home at their kitchen table is going to learn nothing,” he said. “They need to get in the office and be around all the senior people.”

He said working from home was fine for more experienced workers but not for the younger crowd.

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