Finance Careers: A quick look at Insurance career roles

2 mins read

Insurance Finance Careers takes a quick look at a range of Insurance careers in finance. Just a handy quick reference rather than a career guide.

Roles Focus Profit Center Required Attributes
Sales-Agency and Brokerage Selling insurance to individuals and groups Yes Understanding of various insurance policies, good communication skills, back ground in business and marketing, could be stressful as have to meet minimum agency and brokerage quotas
Underwriters Medical and financial underwriting of risk of potential customers No Medical background required for medical underwriting, attention to detail and ability to analyze risk exposure from health and financial position of applicant, aware of company’s risk standards and tolerance levels, have good judgment
New Business Operations Issuance of policy contract, opening of policy file with company, provision of policy illustrations, verification of necessary documents, first premium receipt, data entry into computer system of new policy details No Understanding of the company’s insurance policies in particular what is needed to ensure validity/ enforceability of contracts, customer relation and service roles
Policyholder/ Customer service representatives Provide continuing service to customers including policy documentation, premium notices, follow up on late payments, claim settlements, contractual and legal issues and queries, link between the company and the policyholders, compilation of policy statistics No Good communication skills- ability to work with customer and company employees, sound knowledge of company’s products.
Technology Policy databases including status register, in force policy list, policy wise lists. Cash surrender, paid-up, maturity programs, illustrations programs, Valuation and regulatory reports. Premium and bonus notices. Agent commission/ Employee salary and benefit records. General ledger and consolidated accounts. Company website. No Computer science background, analytical and problem-solving skills, interest in new technology advances, communication skills and ability to work with others in the organization.
Actuaries Pricing of products, assessment of risk cover, valuation of actuarial liability, monitoring of risk factors, regulatory compliance No Good analytical skills, strong statistical, mathematical and risk theory background, communication skills, knowledge of legislative/ regulatory changes and social trends, governed by a strong professional and ethical code.

The life insurance industry on the whole appears to be neutral to the state of the economy; in fact it has been fairly resistant during recessionary periods compared to other financial services sectors.