Job Responsibilities
A typical insurance underwriter will devote most of his/her time
to submissions. I would guess that 80% of the work is done on
reviewing submissions (including the back-and-forth between
agent and underwriter, analyzing risk, and crunching down
premium dollars) and 20% of the work involves account
maintenance.
Major responsibilities are accepting and binding coverage for
accounts that the company can make money on. This
responsibility is quite severe, and given the fact that you are
limited in the amount of risk you can carry, a loss may still
potentially occur which could bankrupt the company.
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Job Requirements
Most people are accepted into the underwriting side of
insurance. Most of the competition is in the retail/wholesale
end, or in administrative/professional positions. Most
underwriters and underwriting assistants "fall upon" the job.
There are English majors, History majors, etc., not only Finance
and the like.
With that said, you still can have a future in the company. CNA
offers many educational opportunities once you have been hired.
You must recieve training (sometimes licensing) for most
positions, obviously, but many companies offer
seminars/forums/continuing education. You can come into the
company as a Liberal Arts graduate and still end up highly
specialized.
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Uppers
Underwriters get to be the gatekeepers of insurance. They are the people who
can deny or grant coverage to the client. Additionally, it gets pretty easy
these days with computers figuring out premiums, and thus alleviating some of the
chances of writing a poor account.
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Downers
Underwriting can get boring. There are a lot of times when an
agent will submit an incomplete submission, or will submit an
unrealistic proposal for strategic purposes, in which case the
waiting game occurs.
Agents can get fussy too. In the end, they are looking to
achieve a high designation in the company, but they are also out
for the money. Agents can cause you to waste a lot of your time
on worthless prospects.
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Lifestyle
Lifestyle is modest and moderate. Nothing too heavy, but then again, nothing
all that rewarding. There's really nothing you can step away from and hold in
awe. Most everything is intangible or otherwise computer generated.
The people are all generally different, which can be good or bad depending on
your personality. Like I said, most people accidentally end up in insurance, so
they come from all different backgrounds. Social events can get exciting.
Be prepared to get transferred, bumped around the country, or traded. Most
people move around from state to state, or company to company. You must also be
prepared to drive to accounts out in who knows where; sometimes 2 hours of
driving for appointments.
Dress code is business casual for everyday activities, suit for appointments.
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Compensation
$35-65k is generally what you'll receive for underwriting. Team
leaders may get more depending on their book of business.
Benefits are usually good, usually a defined contribution
program. Overall, you are looking at a the compensation of your
typical national/multinational corporation. No stock options
for regular employees as far as I know.
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Advice to Jobseekers
I would recommend this job to your easy going, conversationalist
type. Someone who can sit in front of a computer and crack away
from 9-5. You must be willing to accept a generally modest
lifestyle, and if your looking for the top, you must be a
definite go-getter.
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