Barry Seigerman radiates an energy you wouldn't expect from a guy half his age. But at 73, with all the acquired wisdom of a 50-year career in insurance sales, he's retained the same spark that got him started. He talks about his career in anecdotes, mincing no words, pausing occasionally to drop a sharp, hard-won piece of insight.

Seigerman and other longtime producers like him are still going strong, in part because the concept of relationship-building and service comes naturally to them; it isn't something they switch off at a certain age. It has everything to do with what drives a real producer: Selling insurance isn't something you do, it is something you are. So when the subject of retirement comes up, Barry quickly but politely dismisses it. Selling is in his blood, and it still runs hot. Ask him if he's ready to retire, and this veteran gives you the short answer: "Why should I?"

But nothing lasts forever—and the truth is that today, with some 10,000 baby boomers hitting retirement age every single day, the insurance business is seeing its most skilled and accomplished professionals retiring far more quickly than they are being replaced with fresh talent. It is a skill deficit that Seigerman notes with grim authority. Like so many producers his age, he has a million stories to tell, but more importantly, a million lessons to teach. And once guys like him are gone from the business, there won't be anybody else to do it. The business will simply lose an entire generation of know-how.