How to become Insurance Underwriter in 2024

Insurance Underwriter Review individual applications for insurance to evaluate degree of risk involved and determine acceptance of applications.

Insurance Underwriter is Also Know as

In different settings, Insurance Underwriter is titled as

• Account Underwriter
• Automobile and Property Underwriter
• Commercial Lines Underwriter
• Health Underwriter
• Life Underwriter
• Personal Lines Underwriter
• Underwriter
• Underwriting Consultant

Education and Training of Insurance Underwriter

Insurance Underwriter is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Insurance Underwriter

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Insurance Underwriter

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Insurance Underwriter

• Bachelor in Risk Management
• Associate Degree Courses in Risk Management
• Masters Degree Courses in Risk Management
• Bachelor in Financial Risk Management
• Associate Degree Courses in Financial Risk Management
• Masters Degree Courses in Financial Risk Management
• Bachelor in Actuarial Science
• Associate Degree Courses in Actuarial Science
• Masters Degree Courses in Actuarial Science
• Bachelor in Insurance
• Associate Degree Courses in Insurance
• Masters Degree Courses in Insurance

Training Required for Insurance Underwriter

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Insurance Underwriter in different industries are

• Financial Risk Specialists
• Insurance Sales Agents
• Loan Officers
• Credit Analysts
• Personal Financial Advisors
• Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators
• Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents
• Loan Interviewers and Clerks
• Financial and Investment Analysts
• Credit Counselors
• Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks
• Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks
• Brokerage Clerks
• Actuaries
• Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers
• Financial Managers
• Financial Examiners
• Investment Fund Managers
• Appraisers and Assessors of Real Estate
• Accountants and Auditors

What Do Insurance Underwriter do?

• Decline excessive risks.
• Write to field representatives, medical personnel, or others to obtain further information, quote rates, or explain company underwriting policies.
• Evaluate possibility of losses due to catastrophe or excessive insurance.
• Decrease value of policy when risk is substandard and specify applicable endorsements or apply rating to ensure safe, profitable distribution of risks, using reference materials.
• Review company records to determine amount of insurance in force on single risk or group of closely related risks.
• Authorize reinsurance of policy when risk is high.
• Examine documents to determine degree of risk from factors such as applicant health, financial standing and value, and condition of property.

Qualities of Good Insurance Underwriter

• Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
• Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
• Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
• Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
• Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
• Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
• Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
• Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
• Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
• Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
• Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
• Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
• Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
• Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
• Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
• Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
• Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
• Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
• Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
• Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
• Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
• Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
• Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
• Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
• Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
• Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
• Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
• Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
• Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
• Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
• Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
• Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
• Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
• Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
• Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
• Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
• Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
• Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
• Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
• Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
• Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Insurance Underwriter

• 10-key calculators
• Desktop computers
• Laptop computers
• Notebook computers
• Personal computers

Technology Skills required for Insurance Underwriter

• Anodas Software Limited Phoenix
• C++
• Consilience Software Maven Insurance Automation Suite
• CSC nbAccelerator
• Database software
• Delphi Technology
• Fair Isaac Enterprise Decision Management for Insurance
• Fannie Mae Desktop Underwriter
• Fiserv Advanced Underwriting
• IBM FileNet Content Manager
• LabOne NET
• LexisNexis
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Office software
• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft Word
• NIIT Technologies WinRisk
• QualCorp FormsPlus
• RGA AURA
• RGA Facultative Application Console
• SIS SEMCI PARTNER
• Skywire Software InsBridge
• Spreadsheet software
• Valen Technologies Risk Manager
• Web browser software
• Word processing software