Underwriter – Questions With Right Solutions
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The insurance industry, and technology, data creation, client relations, and
underwriting in particular, has corporate structures/ cultures mean this is not the
undergone phenomenal same underwriting department as it was a few
transformation in recent years. decades ago.
Changes in
Today's consumers, and the agents more knowledgeable and demand responsive
who serve them, are engagement from underwriters
There have been moments when the single underwriting job description.
increasing complexity of the
profession has inclined underwriters
toward becoming siloed specialists.
And to be sure, there is no
From operations to risk management unique roles of field underwriters or consultants,
in larger organizations to the there is a considerable degree of specialization to be
found.
Despite this movement toward understanding the big picture of risk assessment and
specialization, the underwriting not getting lost in the details.
profession's path forward is a return to
its roots-holism. Holism can be
defined as
Underwriters have traditionally been expert generalists - with a wide and varied skill set
that encompasses many disciplines.
,Increasingly, the modern underwriter mortality and morbidity, cannot be adequately
needs to embrace a holistic approach approached through binary rules. The same holds
to effectively predict and manage true for underwriting and its tools.
advancements in technology and data
creation. A human life, and the
resulting
How underwriters maintain expert tools (e.g., rules engines, predictive analytics) and
generalism now and in the future specialties ( e.g., risk assessor, data specialist,
presents both challenges and great business driver) into risk review.
opportunities. Thinking holistically is
key to the integrity of underwriters'
function in an insurance company and
will drive how they incorporate
various
This chapter will expand on the prominent dynamics influencing change in those
various underwriting specialties that roles, and look at how they fit together to create a
exist now, consider some holistic view of risk.
In the most basic sense, holistic environment, genetics, socio-economic status,
underwriting summarizes the occupation, and avocation.
fundamentals of the profession by
requiring underwriters look at the
entire proposed insured when
assessing risk. Health and mortality for
any individual are products of
To properly assess risk, an underwriter areas, within the boundaries of actuarially-supported
needs to consider all of these information, ethics, and regulation.
Underwriters are moving toward ( or 1. supporting specialized underwriting roles with 'big
returning to!) being holistic risk picture' thinking
assessors, encompassing many 2. applying an understanding and assessment of the
different specialties. Broadly, holistic entirety of the risk presented by any proposed
risk assessment means: insured to the underwriting process.
, The particulars and complexity of the profession. Integrating that bedrock with new
insurance business have changed and realities and processes is the path forward.
will continue to change. But the core
competencies and fundamentals
remain the bedrock of the
underwriting
Underwriters must leverage the skills of the whole in order to move into specialized
roles within the underwriting department.
To assess mortality, morbidity, and 1. medical, financial, and non-medical aspects
price the risk appropriately, successful 2. regulatory, legal, ethical, privacy, and compliance
underwriters must have a strong issues
foundational knowledge and be 3. geo-political influences and current event trends
expert generalists in many areas: 4. partnering with sales, as an extension of the sales
relationship.
The fundamental knowledge outlined underwriter's role, regardless of the many
above remains core to the transformations that have already occurred and will
continue to occur in the future.
Think of it as the modern risk 1. digital transformation of the solely paper-based
professional adding innovations and operating model into a digital model.
changes to the fundamentals, in the 2. data as a new language of risk assessment
areas of: 3. merging of new and old data sources
4. emerging medical technology, its use in clinical
medicine, and the potential commercial viability and
adoption of these technologies
5. heightened awareness of potential company
exposure to controversy emerging from social,
political, and emerging regulatory trends, including
the problems that can arise from the rapid
dissemination of controversies via social and other
media
6. relationship skills and change management
expertise