MightyRecruiterInsurance underwriters perform analyses and evaluations to determine whether to provide coverage to applicants and what terms are necessary. They determine the risks of insuring clients by screening applicants, contacting field representatives and using computer software. Depending on what premiums and coverage are necessary, insurance underwriters accept or reject applications.
When creating your insurance underwriter job description, you’ll want to stress the importance of your ideal candidate having strong analytical and interpersonal communication skills. Insurance underwriters must collect and evaluate data from various sources to come to a final solution.
Insurance underwriters also regularly interact with other people, acting as the main point of contact between insurance agents and insurance executives. They should be able to communicate their findings and decisions efficiently and respectfully and contribute to a positive environment. Review the insurance underwriter job description below to get an idea of how to write your own.
Insurance Underwriter Job Summary
Do you believe in the power of data to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of insurance coverage? Here’s your opportunity to play a central role in this process, helping people get the appropriate coverage they require while allowing business to continue smoothly. As our insurance underwriter, you will utilize specific guidelines and criteria to assess a candidate’s risk and develop appropriate premiums. You will communicate with insurance agents, senior underwriters and executives to close files and accept cost-effective clients. Your responsibility to ensure financial targets are met is crucial to our organization, and you will gain extensive knowledge of the nuts and bolts of insurance.
Job Responsibilities
- Alter policy value for clients with higher or substandard risk and ensure there is a profitable and safe distribution of risk
- Contact field representatives, landlords and medical personnel to gather more information, quote rates or explain underwriting policies
- Accept, reject or modify new and renewing clients to ensure profitability while determining risk factors such as value of property or applicants’ financial situation
- Manage and develop ongoing relationships with a team of agents by conducting outbound and inbound calls to discuss quality of submissions and market appetite, and achieve profitability and growth targets
- Provide recommendations to management when faced with large or complex accounts outside of authorization
- Review bank statements and credit reports when necessary to obtain averages
- Assist in creating, improving and maintaining underwriting techniques and methods, achieving integrity in a profitable manner
- Manage a book of business to monitor growth and profitability by reviewing loss ratios and agent growth and evaluating agency exceptions
Job Skills & Qualifications
Reqiured:
- Bachelor’s degree or 1–3 years of related work experience
- Proven mathematical and analytical skills
- Proficiency in spreadsheet software
- Demonstrated multitasking and prioritization abilities
Preferred:
- Underwriting experience
- Intermediate knowledge of financial analysis software and ERP software
- Accounting, finance or business degree
- CPCU, AU or API designation; LUTCF course; CLU certification
Insurance Underwriter Job Responsibilities
Before you get started on your insurance underwriter job description, it’s crucial to understand the importance of writing the day-to-day duties of the position clearly and succinctly. The job responsibilities section can be one of the most intimidating areas of the document to write, but following these guidelines is sure to make yours effective at drawing in jobseekers. This section should be thorough but not necessarily exhaustive. Ancillary duties should be left out, leaving room for the most important and regular functions of the job.
This section should be formatted with bullets as discussed above. A bulleted format keeps the insurance underwriter job description streamlined and easy to skim. Be sure to keep the number of bullets between six and eight and start each one with an expressive verb to help candidates envision themselves in the position.
You may refer to these examples of insurance underwriter job responsibilities for your writing purposes:
- Use statistical data to evaluate risk on every prospective policy before issuance
- Examine documents to determine severity of risk based on coverage desired, financial status of applicant and property value and condition
- Decline applications with risk that exceeds company standards
- Interpret company policy and underwriting guidelines to determine degree and eligibility of risk as well as premium
Insurance Underwriter Job Specifications
It’s easy to underestimate the job qualifications and skills section of your insurance underwriter job description. After all, it’s the area of the document with the least amount of content. It’s simply a bottom line of application requirements such as relevant work experience and education.
However, it is unwise to give less attention to this section. Its quality of writing is crucial to its ability to attract job applicants and will often determine your quality of candidates. For example, a poorly written job qualifications and skills section generally results in numerous applications from underqualified jobseekers.
To avoid this scenario, you should arrange a meeting with your upper management to discuss the minimum requirements for insurance underwriters. They should give you a clear understanding of their expectations, which will make this section of your insurance underwriter job description much easier to write. Separate the deal-breakers from the preferred skills on the document to give jobseekers this same clarity.
Here are a few examples of insurance underwriter job specifications:
- At least 2 years’ experience in insurance industry, preferably in underwriting
- Bachelor’s degree or higher
- Fundamental understanding of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as records management and word processing
- Exceptional written and oral communications skills
