A celebration of the life of broking doyen Frank Hoffmann, who died last week at the age of 84, will be held tomorrow.

The event is at Sydney’s Northbridge Golf Club from 2-5pm, and all friends are invited.

Mr Hoffmann built a huge reputation in the industry as a mentor, teacher, technical analyst and writer, expert witness in legal cases, fearless and often controversial commentator on industry issues, and consultant to businesses and brokerages.

His broking career began in 1952 aged 18, when he was forced to abandon his university law studies to take over the family brokerage following the death of his father.

It thrived over the next 22 years until he sold the company in 1974.

While he then retired from broking – he said he was “a little old fashioned” and believed he shouldn’t set up a new brokerage to compete with the one he’d sold – Mr Hoffmann continued to influence the profession for the next 40 years.

A former president of the Corporation of Insurance Brokers – one of the member organisations that combined in 1982 to become the National Insurance Brokers Association – Mr Hoffmann was awarded the Lex McKeown Trophy in 1999 for services to broking. He was also a life member of the Australian Insurance Law Association.

Mr Hoffmann is survived by Jennie, his wife of 53 years, and a family that reflects his lifelong love of the insurance industry.

His son Tony (employed by QBE) is married to Samantha Chick (Quattro Risk Services); son David (Suncorp) is married to Kay (ex-Sun Alliance); and daughter Tina is married to Lloyd’s General Representative in Australia Chris Mackinnon.

There are also five grandchildren.