Insurance underwriter
Insurance underwriters decide whether to insure a person or company, and set out the details of insurance policies.
Typical Salary
£18,000 – £65,000
per year
Working Hours
36–38
hours per week
Day-to-day tasks
In your day-to-day tasks you could:
- study insurance proposals
- gather background information like medical histories
- analyse statistics from actuaries and other sources
- get specialist risk assessments from experts like surveyors or doctors
- assess the likelihood of an insurance payout
- calculate the price of insurance premiums
- judge whether to share the risk with another insurer
- prepare quotes and negotiate terms with brokers or business clients
- write policies
Skills needed
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- analytical thinking skills
- the ability to work well with others
- excellent verbal communication skills
- maths knowledge
- the ability to use your judgement and make decisions
- customer service skills
- administration skills
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages confidently
How to get into this role
You can get into this job through:
- a university course
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- working towards this role
- a graduate training scheme
Career progression
With experience, you could deal with more complex risks.
You could also move into management or apply for related jobs like risk management, loss adjusting and claims management.