A range of factors is reshaping the insurance landscape, according to senior lawyer Mark Kimberley. But he expects the industry will adapt to the changes without being damaged.

The HWL Ebsworth Lawyers partner told an Actuaries Institute seminar in Sydney last week that industry consolidation, regulation, advances in technology, climate change, social and demographic shifts, terrorism and global capital flows are facilitating that change across the industry.

“Each of these factors individually is enough to force change in the industry, so when you look at them collectively the industry will certainly have to change,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

However, Mr Kimberley – who has also worked in Bermuda representing insurers and reinsurers – says whatever the impact on the industry, it is unlikely to be damaging.

“The insurance industry historically has… evolved well to changes in the market. Fundamentally, that’s what insurance is about: identifying new risks and addressing risks as they arise so their impact is minimised across the economy.”

Mr Kimberley says technology poses one of the greatest challenges to insurance, but he believes the industry is more than capable of adapting.

“I don’t see anything coming along that is a wrecking ball. If you consider that insurance has been around for 400 or 500 years, in that time, fundamentally, it has remained the same.

“The impact [of technology] will be not so much in terms of the products insurance companies sell, but how they manage themselves.”

Mr Kimberley says the staffing of insurance companies will change because of technology. Some jobs will disappear, others will be outsourced and some positions that will be common in 10 or 15 years do not yet exist.

“Twenty years ago if you were a large insurer in Australia you’d have all of your staff in Australia. Now you will have call centres in the Philippines or India, and underwriting functions somewhere else overseas.

“There is no way insurers can do that and maintain the same workforce here. It will reduce the numbers of staff and [change] who they employ.”

Whatever changes confront the insurance industry over the next “five, 15, 20 years”, of one thing Mr Kimberley is convinced: “We won’t see the importance of insurance diminish in any way.”