Underwriter interview questions, with worked answers

How to use these questions

Many underwriting interviews include a submission: a short description of a client, the cover asked for and a few years of claims. Work through it aloud: what is being insured, what could go wrong and how badly, what the claims history says, what price and terms you would offer, what you would refer or decline, and what you would ask the broker. Then describe a real risk you wrote.

What an underwriter is expected to know

• The decision: underwritingDecide which risks an insurer takes, at what price and on which terms, within your authority. within guidelines and authority.
• The line: how losses arise in property and casualtyKnow the property, liability, motor or specialty lines you write and how their losses arise. or the line you write.
• The price: pricingUse the rating tools and adjust a price for the features of one risk, and explain the change. from the rating tools, adjusted for the single risk.
• The book: exposuresSee how one policy adds to the insurer's exposures, limits and accumulations., reinsuranceKnow how reinsurance protects the book, and write risks that fit the insurer's treaties. and the loss ratio.

Tools come up side by side and none is a must: policy systems such as Guidewire and Duck Creek, catastrophe models such as RMS and Touchstone for property risks, and Excel for exposure and pricing sheets. Panels care more about the judgement than about the system that issues the policy.

Selecting and pricing risks

What makes a risk attractive to write, and what makes you decline it?

What they check: risk selection with reasons.

Short answer: "Risk selection means choosing the risks the insurer can price well and that fit its appetite. I look at the quality of the risk itself, such as construction and protection for property, the client's management and claims history, and whether the cover and the price fit together. I decline when the exposure is outside appetite, the information is too thin to judge, or no reasonable price would cover the expected losses."

The full answer: A good underwriter writes fewer bad risks rather than more good ones.

A weak answer: "I write what the broker sends if the price is right." Follow-up: "The client has no claims in five years but works in a high-hazard trade." Say what you do.

How do you work within underwriting guidelines and your authority?

What they check: discipline inside the rules.

Short answer: "Underwriting guidelines set which risks, limits and conditions the insurer wants. Underwriting authority is the size and kind of risk I may accept alone; above it I refer to someone with more authority. I refer early, with my own recommendation and the facts that decide it, and I never split a risk to stay under my limit."

The full answer: A referral is part of the process, not a sign of weakness.

A weak answer: "I check the guidelines when unsure." Follow-up: "The broker needs an answer today and your manager is away." Say what you do.

A broker sends a large submission with missing information. How do you handle it?

What they check: working with brokers.

Short answer: "A submission is the broker's package for a risk: the client, the cover, values, claims and surveys. I acknowledge it quickly, list exactly what is missing and why it matters to the price, and give the broker a date. If time is short, I may quote with conditions or exclusions for the gaps rather than guess."

The full answer: Brokers return to underwriters who answer clearly and on time, even with a no.

A weak answer: "I quote on what I have." Follow-up: "The broker says another insurer quoted without the survey." Say what you answer.

How do you price a single risk when the rating tool gives you a starting rate?

What they check: pricing beyond the tool.

Short answer: "The rate from the actuaries' tool reflects the average risk of its kind. I adjust for what makes this risk different: its exposure, its protections, its claims, the deductible and the limit. Each adjustment needs a reason I can write down. I also check that the final price still covers expected losses, costs and the capital the risk uses."

The full answer: A discount you cannot explain on paper is usually a discount you should not give.

A weak answer: "I match the market price." Follow-up: "The tool's rate is far above the expiring premium." Say how you handle the renewal.

The book, catastrophes and reinsurance

What is the loss ratio, and what do you do when it rises on your book?

What they check: owning the result.

Short answer: "The loss ratio is the claims paid and reserved divided by the premium earned. When it rises, I ask the claims team whether it is a few large losses or many small ones, which segments and which brokers they come from, and whether prices or terms were too soft. Then I change what I can: rates, deductibles, conditions, or leaving a segment."

The full answer: One bad year can be chance; three in a row is a pricing or selection problem.

A weak answer: "Claims are bad luck." Follow-up: "Your largest broker brings the worst loss ratio." Say what you do.

How do you control catastrophe exposure and accumulation?

What they check: the risks that hit many policies at once.

Short answer: "An accumulation is the total the insurer could lose from one event across many policies, such as a storm, a flood or a cyber attack. I check where the new risk sits against existing exposures, use catastrophe model results where we have them, and stay within the limits per zone or event. Sometimes the answer for a good risk is a lower limit."

The full answer: Every single policy can look fine while the book is far too heavy in one place.

A weak answer: "Catastrophes are the reinsurer's problem." Follow-up: "The new client's warehouse is next to three you already insure." Say what you do.

How does reinsurance shape what you can write?

What they check: the insurer's own protection.

Short answer: "Reinsurance is insurance for insurers: it takes part of large or many losses off the insurer's books. The treaties set what is covered, up to which limits and with which exclusions, so I write risks that fit them, and buy extra cover for a single large risk if needed. In a shared placement, a line is the share of a risk that one insurer takes."

The full answer: A risk outside the treaty sits fully on the insurer's own capital.

A weak answer: "Reinsurance covers everything above our limit." Follow-up: "The client operates in a country the treaty excludes." Say what you do.

How do you prepare a renewal, and when do you not renew?

What they check: keeping good business, leaving bad business.

Short answer: "I start weeks ahead: the year's claims, changes in the client's business, new values and the market rate. I talk to the broker early about what will change. I keep good risks with fair terms, and I do not renew when the risk has worsened beyond what any price or condition can fix."

The full answer: Renewals hold most of the book's profit or loss; treat them as new decisions.

A weak answer: "Renewals roll over with the same terms." Follow-up: "The client had a large claim but is a long-standing account." Say what you offer.

New risks, rules and partners

How would you underwrite a cyber risk for a mid-sized company?

What they check: a newer line with little history.

Short answer: "I look at the company's controls: backups, multi-factor sign-in, patching, training and an incident plan, usually from a questionnaire and sometimes a scan. I check how dependent it is on its systems and what a day offline would cost. Then limits, deductibles and exclusions that reflect how little loss history the market has."

The full answer: In cyber, an attack can hit many clients at once, so accumulation matters here too.

A weak answer: "Cyber is like property." Follow-up: "The client has no backups held apart from its network." Say what you offer.

What checks do sanctions and compliance rules add before you bind a policy?

What they check: the rules behind each policy.

Short answer: "Before binding, the client, its owners and sometimes the goods or places covered are screened against sanctions lists, and the policy needs a sanctions clause. I make sure the checks are done and documented, and I stop if something matches until compliance clears it. Each country's supervisor sets further rules on conduct and capital, which the insurer's guidelines turn into steps."

The full answer: Covering a sanctioned party can be a breach of law even if no claim ever comes.

A weak answer: "The broker checks that." Follow-up: "A cargo goes through a sanctioned country." Say what you do.

How do you work with actuaries, and how do the EU's Solvency II rules and other capital rules show in your work?

What they check: the link to pricing and capital.

Short answer: "The actuaries build the rates, reserves and capital models; I give them what I see in the market and in single risks, and use their tools. Under the EU's Solvency II rules, and similar rules elsewhere, some risks use more capital than others, so the insurer may set higher targets for them. I ask the actuaries when my risk sits outside the data behind the rate."

The full answer: Underwriters and actuaries who talk often price better than either alone.

A weak answer: "Actuaries do the numbers, I do the clients." Follow-up: "Your rates lose against the market for a year." Say what you take to the actuaries.

Where do data and AI help underwriting, and where do you keep the decision?

What they check: sober use of new tools.

Short answer: "Data and AI tools can read submissions, fill in risk details, suggest prices for simple risks and flag ones that look unusual. I keep people in charge of complex risks, referrals and anything outside the data the tool learned from, and I check that the tool's factors are fair and allowed. The underwriter still signs the decision."

The full answer: Tools speed up simple risks so underwriters have time for the hard ones.

A weak answer: "The model prices everything now." Follow-up: "The tool declines a type of client you know is good." Say what you check.

Senior rounds

As a senior underwriter or underwriting manager, how would you develop an underwriting assistant?

What they check: building the underwriting team.

Short answer: "I let them prepare real submissions with a recommendation, sit with me on broker calls and explain my referral decisions. I give them a small authority as soon as their files are sound and widen it step by step. I review the loss ratio of their risks with them, not only the paperwork."

The full answer: An underwriting manager is judged by the books their underwriters write.

A weak answer: "Assistants do the admin." Follow-up: "Their files are tidy but they never decline anything." Say how you coach them.

Your CV for these questions

Every underwriting line on your CV invites the questions above: which line, which risks, what result. Give each a line that makes an underwriting manager ask for the story:

Hold your CV against an underwriter job with the free score; then prepare a risk story for the area it finds thin, from the submission to the result.