The bottom line for any health underwriting jobs or any life insurance underwriting jobs is that the underwriters have to make sure that their insurance companies make an overall profit from those who pay premiums on their policies. If they appraise someone as a risk and reject him or her when that applicant shouldn't be rejected, the insurance company they work for will lose money. Why? Because they will have restricted their pool of premium-paying customers too severely, limiting the cash flow. However, if they accept an applicant whose risk is high and who will likely cost them more money than they receive from that applicant in premiums, this will affect their bottom line negatively because they'll spend more on that applicant than they will take in from him or her in premiums.
Education and Training
Underwriters are hired directly by the insurance companies they work for, and most of these companies prefer underwriters who have graduated from college. However, you may begin in underwriting assistant jobs, get some experience, and then move up in your profession to become an underwriter. If you do wish to become an underwriter, taking courses in statistics, business, insurance, and mathematics should help you get underwriting assistant jobs.
The insurance company you work for will also offer training to its underwriters, and these programs are considered indispensable if you wish to make this your career.
In addition, insurance underwriters can get a certification from a the American Institute for Charted Property-Casualty Underwriters. You must have been in the industry for three years, though, to apply for this certification. You also have to pass 10 exams and follow a professional code of ethics.
Finding a Job
If you have gone to college, your placement office should be able to help you find a job. You may also look online at various job sites using the keywords ''insurance underwriter'' and your area of choice, such as health or life. Employment agencies, too, have these types of listings. It will help you land a job if you work part-time or during the summer while in school for an insurance company in some type of underwriting capacity, such as in underwriting assistant jobs.
Working as an Insurance Underwriter
When you become an underwriter, you're going to choose one of three different types of insurance underwriting areas: medical underwriting jobs, health underwriting jobs, or property/liability underwriting jobs. Whichever type of underwriter you want to be, you'll handle policies both from businesses and from individuals.
Advancement Potential, Outlook, and Salary
Whether or not you can advance significantly depends on the size of the company you work for as an underwriter. After you have trained as an underwriter, you may advance within your company based upon opportunities there. As you become more experienced, for example, you may become what's called a ''chief underwriter,'' an underwriting manager who oversees others. You may also become an administrator within the insurance department.
In some cases, you would go on sales calls with salespeople who are selling insurance to prospective customers, because you may need to gather information on particular clients that would be difficult to obtain in any other way. Remember, again, that your particular duty is to gather and analyze information about clients in regard to the particular type of insurance you underwrite policies for. After that, you make your decisions about prospective clients based upon that information and your analyses.
Job opportunities within the underwriting industry are relatively few, in part because computers have taken over much of the analysis work that used to be done by underwriters. That said, the insurance industry is an ever-changing field, and underwriters may be needed once again should any significant changes occur in the insurance or health industries, for example. Underwriters made an average of about $50,000 a year as of 2004.
Conclusion
Because insurance companies need to make profits from their basic product, the insurance policy, the clients they sell insurance to must be of low enough risk that the money lost through insurance payouts is less than the money gained through premium payments. Underwriters provide a service by analyzing prospective clients' risk levels and accepting or rejecting applications for insurance based upon specific parameters. This is a very important field to get into, and insurance companies will continue to need underwriters to do this type of job. So, if you're good at analyzing situations and data, and you enjoy working with people, being an underwriter might just be for you.