Shifting client expectations offer ‘tremendous opportunity’ for rising professionals – Marsh’s Lisa Quest

Marsh UK chief executive Lisa Quest has said that shifting client expectations will create “tremendous opportunity” for those “entering the insurance profession”.

Addressing delegates at Marsh’s biannual Rising Professionals’ Forum 2026 on 24 June in Blackfriars, London, Quest explained that as technology adoption rises and alternative reinsurance capital becomes more prominant “the business model of insurance” and clients are being “challenged”.

With expectations “very different” from what has been previously seen, Quest noted that clients are increasingly asking the firm to “help them anticipate the risk, build the resilience and make better strategic decisions”.

She continued: “The future belongs to the organisations that move beyond simply providing insurance as a product and to the organisations that become the providers of insight, resilience and confidence.

“That is genuinely where the greatest value will be created and that’s where many of you will actually build your careers.”

Reflecting on her own career, Quest believes that “turbulent times don’t just make leaders, they reveal them”.

While the UK spends time mulling over future competitiveness, she said that it would heavily depend on the country’s ability to “improve productivity, to embrace technology and to attract investment”.

She explained: “Insurance has a critical role to play in all three and I would argue in the UK more than any other country because organisations invest confidently when they understand risk.

“They grow faster when they can manage uncertainty. The technology is changing faster than I’ve ever seen. Client expectations are rising, the pace of change is accelerating and the professionals who thrive won’t be the ones who simply know the most. They will be the people that others trust the most.”

Taking ‘that next step’

As firms operate in an “uncertain” world, Quest contended that the insurance industry has a wider role to play in enabling economic growth.

She said there had “never been a more important time” for the sector to support the economy to “take that next step” as businesses face emerging forms of risk.

She continued: “When we are at our best, we’re not simply protecting organisations from downside risks – we’re helping them move forward with confidence.

“When we do that businesses invest, entrepreneurs innovate, infrastructure gets built, new technologies get commercialised and economic growth becomes possible. We often talk about insurance as a safety net but, at its best, insurance is the enabler of growth because growth requires confidence – and confidence requires risk capital.”