Insurance underwriter

You would calculate how much to charge people and companies for insurance so they are properly protected from losses and your company can make a profit.

You’d need to analyse complex information and be confident in working with statistics.

You could specialise in

• Life assurance - covering illness, injury and death

• General insurance - covering household, travel or motor

• Commercial insurance - covering companies

• Reinsurance - where part of the risk is placed with another company.

So, if your customer’s possessions were damaged or they had an accident then, depending on the terms of the insurance policy, your company would need to pay to fix the problem or reimburse them for their losses.

You’d be responsible for deciding whether to accept an insurance application, and what the terms, conditions and cost of the insurance policy would be.

You would:

• Study insurance proposals

• Gather background information, such as medical histories

• Analyse statistics from actuaries and other sources

• Get specialist risk assessments from experts, like surveyors or doctors

• Assess risk (the likelihood of an insurance payout)

• Calculate the price of insurance premiums

• Judge whether some of the risk should be shared with another insurer (known as 'reinsurance')

• Prepare quotes and negotiating terms with brokers or business clients

• Decide whether any special conditions should apply to policies

• Write policy wording

• Maintain accurate and detailed records

You would work closely with actuaries who are experts in calculating risk. You would also work alongside claims and risk managers, brokers and other insurance professionals.

• Chartered Insurance Institute - professional body for the global financial services profession