When Brooke Hunter was 16, her father invited her to sit with him at the dining room table to look at the financial statements for his company. After he walked her through them, he asked, “Brookie, what do you think?” to which she responded, “Dad, we’re rich!” He replied in turn, “No Brookie. I am reasonably well off. You are dirt poor.”
The message came through loud and clear: She was entitled to nothing.
Today, Brooke Hunter is the founder and president of HUNTERS International Insurance, a brokerage based in Toronto that serves individuals, corporations and their boards. She founded HUNTERS in 2005 after working in risk management and insurance in Vancouver, Hong Kong and Sydney and running a large Toronto brokerage. Indeed, members of the Hunter family have been protecting Canadian organizations and their leaders since 1885.
Hunter has served on the boards of the Toronto Insurance Conference (including as president) and the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada. In 2021, she was elected to the board of UNIBA Partners, a global network of independent providers of risk management, insurance broking and employee benefits services in more than 130 countries.
Hunter is also president and director of Huntro Investments, a family office.
In terms of her personal investment portfolio, the vast majority of Hunter’s wealth is in her business and real estate.
Fitness alert: Hunter is into tennis and high intensity strength training.
Where did you grow up, and what did your parents do for work?
I was born in and still love Toronto. My mother was a corporate executive – ultimately retiring as executive vice-president of pension administration at State Street Canada. My father was a fourth-generation insurance broker running the family business, Hunter Rowell, to great success.
How did your career evolve?
After studying art history at Western University, I moved to Vancouver to work part-time at an art gallery but soon realized that I would never be able to afford rent with that job. I called my Dad to see if he might be able use his vast pull to get me a job. He did indeed deliver, as I was hired as the assistant to the file clerk at an insurance brokerage in Vancouver. This was good learning for me – I was happy to be able to afford to eat, even if it was humble pie.
Staying in Vancouver worked out well. In my first job at JLT Group I got the life-changing opportunity to be seconded to work in Hong Kong and Sydney continuing to specialize in the construction industry. In Vancouver I had been working on $30, $50 or $100 million deals but in Hong Kong we would do $3 billion projects. I learned not to be intimidated by zeros.
In 1997, my father convinced me to move back to Toronto to ultimately enter into a professional partnership. I stayed there for seven years, the last two years of which I chaired the executive committee. At the end of the day, we were not all aligned in our desired outcomes so I decided to leave and start my own shop. This was about 20 years ago now.
To make it clear there was sizable intellectual and social capital behind my new firm we came up with the tagline “Protecting business leaders for five generations.” HUNTERS International Insurance represents over 120 years of experience and sustainable values in the property-casualty insurance brokerage business in Canada.
Three years after founding my firm I hired my father. His network really got a hoot out of seeing the announcement in the Globe and Mail: Brooke Hunter is pleased to announce the appointment of Bryce Hunter as Chairman. I loved working with my Dad so much as we always enjoyed a constructive debate.
I see a ton of tedious tasks that brokers despise that AI will do for us – like comparing policy wordings. We’ll be able to increase time available to build relationships with our clients. I also think brokerages are coming to the realization that you can use AI to lever up your people versus replacing your people. In an AI world the real value people will desire will be a combination of human trust, intellect and charisma.
Since the profile of ESG has ascended, in the past year I completed my Competent Boards Global ESG Certificate and Designation, which I highly recommend for anyone seeking to be an effective board member in an uncertain and very connected world.
What are your clients concerned about these days?
Our clients are talking about climate change vis a vis insuring their properties.
What is the most common mistake that wealthy families make in terms of insurance?
Wealthy families have a vast array of assets and all sorts of investment vehicles – holding assets in individual names, corporations and trusts. The most common mistake I see is when families don’t have their advisor grind through all of the details to ascertain which legal structure holds which asset. If insurance doesn’t reflect the correct ownership, claims can really go sideways.
What is your No. 1 piece of advice?
Plan! Bad things happen to good people all the time, so we should indeed hope for the best and plan for the worst.
This concept is magnified for families of wealth. I can’t stress enough the positive difference the extent of my father’s detailed estate planning made for our family.
What do you do for fun?
My family is my fun! My husband Andrew Spence is also fun … and funny. He has just written a book, the only contribution to which I made is the title: Fleeced: Canadians Versus Their Banks. We’ve been married two years now and since the pandemic we’ve lived in a busy household consisting of my two daughters, Andrew’s son and two daughters, three cats and a corgi. No rest for the wicked, indeed!
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
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