The Future of Insurance: Industry Leaders

Host Jessica Hurley talks with Elizabeth Walsh, Vice President and Head of U.S. Pensions at MetLife, about how MetLife is responding to the continued growth and rising complexity of the pension risk transfer (PRT) market in the latest installment of Future of Retirement. 
Elizabeth discusses how improved funded status, sustained sponsor demand, increasing insurer participation, and evolving deal structures are shaping today’s market activity and future outlook. She also shares what differentiates a successful PRT provider, including financial strength, investment capabilities, operational excellence, participant experience, and the long-term track record needed to support plan sponsors through complex transactions and ongoing obligations.

Also, they both explore how technology is helping improve execution across data cleansing, transaction efficiency, document generation, participant communications, and advanced analytics—supporting greater speed, accuracy, scalability, and service as the market continues to evolve.

In this episode of Future of Retirement, Sandy Rich, Executive Director of the New York City Board of Education Retirement System and Dan Doonan, Executive Director of the National Institute on Retirement Security, join host Jessica Hurley to explore how NYC BERS is modernizing retirement administration for more than 55,000 members. They discuss how the organization has transformed its operations through cloud migration, integrated data and payroll systems, digital workflow tools, call center capabilities, and automation designed to improve efficiency, accuracy, and member service.
The conversation also examines the challenges of data quality, evolving benefit complexity, auto-enrollment, Roth contributions, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in retirement administration.  Finally, Sandy and Dan explore how modernization is enabling retirement systems to operate with greater agility, security, and responsiveness—creating a stronger foundation for improved member outcomes and long-term confidence.

AI is poised to define the future of insurance, but a significant gap remains between those who recognize its potential and the organizations that have integrated it into their operations. In this conversation between Denise Garth, Chief Strategy Officer, Majesco and Rob McIsaac, President and CEO at RPM Ventures NC, LLC, they explore why that gap is less about technology and more about leadership — and how insurers are moving from experimentation to execution in a new intelligence era.
They examine how GenAI and Agentic AI are reshaping insurance operations, strategy, and competitive advantage. Denise and Rob also discuss the role of data readiness, modern core systems, and enterprise-wide AI roadmaps, and how leading insurers are moving from knowledge retrieval and document intelligence to AI-enabled workflows, decision support, and more complex automation. The conversation also defines what it means to become a Frontier Insurer, which is not simply using AI, but redesigning processes and rearchitecting the business around intelligence.

In this episode of Future of Retirement, Jessica Hurley is joined by Ian Cahill, Head of Pension Risk Transfer at MassMutual, to explore the market forces shaping the future of pension risk transfer. He shares how changing retirement strategies, improved funded status, rising plan costs, and expanding insurer capacity are accelerating growth in the PRT market. They also discuss the increasing complexity of transactions, the importance of administrative strength and long-term alignment, and how technology and AI are helping insurers improve efficiency, evaluate opportunities, and deliver more customized client solutions in a rapidly growing space.

Barbara Zvan, President and Chief Executive Officer of UPP, and Brian Gill, Chief Technology Officer, join host Jessica Hurley to discuss how the University Pension Plan is reshaping retirement administration across Ontario’s university sector in this episode of Future of Retirement. They take a detailed look how UPP was built from a clean slate to unify complex legacy pension plans, support growing member expectations, and create a more modern, agile foundation for long-term service delivery. 
The conversation also explores the role of cloud-based technology, configurable platforms, strong data quality, and collaborative partnership in managing complexity at scale. Lastly, Barbara and Brian reflect on how AI, plain-language tools, and a member-first approach can help deliver faster answers, greater confidence, and a more personal retirement experience for the future.