Job Responsibilities
I conduct financial and regulatory audits/examinations of
insurance companies. I have from one to six additional staff
with me that I supervise.
The main responsibilities is to assign various aspects of the
exam to the staff and to ascertain the solvency of the insurance
companies being examined. In addition our job is to make
certain that the companies comply with the various statutes of
the state of Missouri governing insurance companies.
This is a highly technical job which requires us to determine
that the balance sheet of the company being examined is
reasonably accurate and that the company will be able to pay all
of its future insurance claims.
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Job Requirements
The entry level position requires at least 18 hours of
accounting and a significant amount of computer proficiency as
we currently are using electronic work papers for our exams.
The career path is somewhat limited. After entry there are two
professional designations that the person can attain after two
and three years respectively (Affiliated Financial
Examiner, "AFE" and Certified Financial Examiner, "CFE"). Both
designations bring minimum pay levels with them that are quite
generous and result in a considerable raise. Courses to attain
those designations are self-study and are very easy to acquire.
Pass/Fail tests are offered quarterly. There are four courses
that need to be passed for AFE and three additional courses
beyond the AFE that need to be passed for CFE.
The job is a basic 40 hour a week job with approximately 50% out-
of-state travel associated with it.
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Uppers
For me the best parts of the job are as follows:
Variety - Every time I start a new examination it is like starting a new job.
Travel - I enjoy working out of town for weeks or months at a time, particularly
since we work four, ten-hour days and then have three-day week-ends every week.
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Downers
It is a government job, which means there are very few
incentives for those who work hard and excel. Everyone is
treated the same, which is disheartening for those who are
ambitious.
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Lifestyle
The dress code for the job varies with each exam as examiners follow the dress
code of the Company they are examining, so it is anywhere to purely business to
purely casual.
Our department has very few social events as it is constrained by the fact that
it is a state agency.
Also the travel leaves the examiners somewhat isolated from the rest of the
department, but the examiners, themselves are a fairly close-knit group even when
they are not together on the same exam. We are very much aware of where each
team is located.
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Compensation
The EIC position currently pays slightly over $80,000 per year.
I do not currently know the entry level pay.
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Advice to Jobseekers
This particular job will NOT experience any growth in the
future. Insurance regulation MAY become federal in the future.
In that scenario, the federal government will have to hire the
examiners. Existing state examiners will be very good
candidates for the position. Another scenario currently
existing is that states are contracting for the position rather
than hiring directly. There are various contracting companies
that are hiring examiner to do this job for states all over the
country. These positions pay well and the opportunities are
much less limited than for the states. For example, American
Express hires these contractors and an employee for American
Express can rise in that institution just as well as any other
employee. Contract employees do not have the constraints that
government employees have.
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