Four years ago, I started digging into the issue of attracting new talent to the insurance industry. Two things became clear early on. First, a lot of great initiatives have been formed around this issue from every sector of the industry. Second, it's not working.

This issue is crucial to the success of our industry. According to a Deloitte study, the majority of underwriters, adjusters and sales agents are 40 or older. Also, between 2004 and 2014, the property-casualty industry will need to fill almost 25,000 underwriting jobs and 85,000 claims positions.

We have great risk management and insurance college programs around the country. If you haven't visited a Gamma Iota Sigma meeting, you are missing out. The students in our RMI programs are the "best and brightest" that I keep hearing the industry talk about. Yet despite placement rates of nearly 100 percent, the annual yield of graduates from these programs only account for 10 percent to 15 percent of industry needs. Those figures are sobering.