Life Reinsurance and Innovation Series Part 1: Irish Demographic and Economic Outlook
This event is taking place virtually, over Zoom. Click here to read the Zoom user guidance notes.
Set against a rapidly changing economic, demographic and political environment, insurers and reinsurers are evolving the way insurance works and how they are interacting with both customers and distributors. From product innovation and underwriting developments to embracing new powerful data driven tools and the transformation of customer experiences, the industry is helping to navigate increasingly complex risks, meet new demands and empower customers.
The Life Reinsurance and Innovation committee are proud to present a three-part series of webinars over the coming weeks examining this topic of evolution within the life insurance industry. As part of this, we will get insights from the ESRI, have panel discussions with experts from within both the Irish and UK markets as well as exploring what innovation is happening in other markets outside of Europe.
Our first event welcomes Kieran McQuinn from the ESRI to present a summary of their recent analysis of Irish historical demographic and economic trends, from 1995 to 2023, and how it might predict future trends in the Irish market. Cathal O’Toole will then overlay what this may mean for both the Irish insurance and pension industries.
Kieran McQuinn is a Research Professor within the ESRI who works on the quarterly economic commentary (QEC), macroeconomic and housing related projects. His research interests are in the macro-financial and economic growth areas. He spent over 11 years working in the Irish Central Bank where he had management positions in the research and financial stability areas. He started his career in University College Cork and then joined Teagasc, the Irish agriculture and food development authority, where he worked for over 5 years as a research economist. Kieran has a PhD in economics from NUI Maynooth. He has served on the management committee and the council of the Economic and Social Research Institute and he is currently adjunct professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin.
With 35+ years’ experience in the life, pensions and investments industry, Cathal O'Toole has a range of knowledge covering customer service, marketing, distribution, strategic partnership management and product development. Cathal has worked in many market facing roles, either directly to customers or through Brokers, Banking partners or Direct sales. He is passionate about the benefits that our industry’s products and services bring to customers. He believes the core advice that enables product purchase is the key to improving customer outcomes. Cathal is Director of Products and Propositions in Irish Life Advice Solutions. He leads a team that is focussed on ensuring the current offerings are best in class while looking for opportunities to develop new products, propositions or services that will solve customer problems and support our distribution partners.