Insurance icon Brian Duperreault has dismissed concerns about possible fallout from the introduction of corporate income tax in Bermuda, predicting things will be fine.

“I do not think the tax is going to make that much of a difference,” Mr Duperreault said at the close of the Bermuda Risk Summit. “There has been a push from the G20 for a very long time to have a minimum tax in Bermuda.”

The G20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union, and the African Union.

“The Bermuda industry and regulator, together, have worked out a way to do this in a very intelligent way,” Mr Duperreault said.

He did not think it would greatly impact Bermuda, capital formation or talent attraction.

The Bermuda Corporate Income Tax Act 2023, which came online on January 1, applies a 15 per cent corporate income tax to Bermuda businesses that are part of a multinational enterprise group with annual revenue of €750 million or more. Some people have worried that its introduction might drive certain companies to other jurisdictions.

Mr Duperreault hoped Bermuda would continue to be known for its ability to look at risk and find ways to solve problems.

At the conference held at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, Mr Duperreault introduced his new biography, Faith and Purpose: The Life and Vision of an Insurance Icon, written by Wendy Davis Johnson. The book will be released next week.

He joked that it was embarrassing to have a book written about his life, but he had it written for his grandchildren.

“I hope it gives the people who read it some help in the formation of their own careers and development,” he said. “I have tried to impart what I learnt the hard way over the years.”

He started as an actuary at AIG in the United States in 1973, eventually running all of AIG’s international operations. He returned to Bermuda, his birthplace, in the 1990s to be chairman and chief executive of Ace Ltd (now Chubb), transforming the firm into a multi-line insurance and reinsurance powerhouse.

In the process, he helped to transform Bermuda into a global insurance centre.

Retirement in 2007 only lasted two years, before he returned to the fray to turn around Marsh & McLennan Companies. He retired again in 2012, only to form Hamilton Insurance Group a year later.

He left Hamilton to briefly take over AIG to help it out of a difficult period, then retired for a third time. That retirement also did not stick.

“There is only so much golf you can play,” the 77-year-old said. “At my age, if you change jobs it is retiring. When you are 30, it is just changing jobs.”

He is now chairman of Bermudian-based insurance firm Mereo which he cofounded and launched last month.

His advice to young people was to always do the right thing.

“Sometimes it is pretty obvious what the right thing is,” he said. “Sometimes it is not so obvious. Sometimes the consequences of doing the right thing can be scary, but doing the right thing always works out in the end.”

Mr Duperreault never wrote a five-year plan in his life, and said if he had, he probably would have gotten it wrong. Instead, his strategy was to be always open to new opportunities and possibilities.

“Do not be afraid,” he urged the audience. “Take a chance. Every day at AIG was an adventure. When the opportunity to go to Ace came along, I took it. And when Marsh came along, I took that. I did not cling to what I had. If I had clung to the Ace job, I never would have been at Marsh.”