Thanks to the rapid growth of the business over the last two years Lorega now employs seventy highly experienced, independent chartered loss adjusters. But the Loss Adjusting profession faces some real challenges in the years ahead. The average age of the adjusters contracted to Lorega is currently around fifty. We are therefore well set for the next ten years but the insurance industry may be facing a severe shortage of experience after that. The sad fact is that no young blood is currently coming into our industry. It is also scary that only one person qualified as an adjuster in 2008 compared with the industry’s yearly requirement of at least thirty.

We have to ask ourselves some difficult questions. Why should a young person spend five years qualifying as an adjuster when the maximum they can earn as a company adjuster is around £40,000 per annum? Much better for them to spend five years qualifying as a lawyer and earn at least twice that amount working on the litigation when the claim goes wrong.

The industry needs to wake up to this situation and take steps now to attract young talent into our business. Lorega will be working hard with CILA and other bodies to help to redress this shortfall. In addition Lorega is working independently to devise training programmes to incentivise fresh blood into our industry.