Insurance Underwriters: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Insurance Underwriters review individual applications for insurance to evaluate degree of risk involved and determine acceptance of applications.

• Examine documents to determine degree of risk from factors such as applicant health, financial standing and value, and condition of property.
• Decline excessive risks.
• Write to field representatives, medical personnel, or others to obtain further information, quote rates, or explain company underwriting policies.
• Evaluate possibility of losses due to catastrophe or excessive insurance.

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Insurance Underwriters with little to no experience tend to make between $42260 and $53200 while the more experienced ones can earn over $93550 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as an Insurance Underwriter is to move to a higher paying state like NY. Right now, the highest paying states for Insurance Underwriters are NY, NJ, CA, DC and CT.

However, a higher pay at NY doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at NY might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as an Insurance Underwriter is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

We asked other Insurance Underwriters what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Bachelor’s Degree followed by a High School Diploma.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Here are some of the pros and cons of being an Insurance Underwriter.

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70% of Insurance Underwriters said they were satisfied with their job and 37% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

Josh Sousa

TruStar

I’m a Commercial Lines Underwriter for TruStar, a speciality managing general agent (MGA). This means I work on behalf of an insurance company and we work with brokers to provide coverage for their clients’ needs that may be more complex and require specialty underwriting. People typically think of personal insurance, such as for health, home, … Read More

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like following set procedures and routines. They like working with data and details more than with ideas..

They also like starting up and carrying out projects. They like leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.