Risk and insurance touches every aspect of daily life and business. When we drive our cars, we accept risk of damage to our expensive automobile and potential injury to ourselves and others. When we operate our business, we encounter risks to our business property, reputation, and livelihood. Risk management and insurance is what allows our lives and the economy to operate smoothly in spite of the risks and the reality that “bad things” will occasionally happen. Risk management and insurance is what makes us whole when things go wrong in both our personal and business lives.
As a risk and insurance professional, you will be responsible for putting lives back together. From insurance agents, risk managers, underwriters, claims, marketing, IT, human resources, to customer service representatives, everyone works in concert to make the world a better place. As a risk and insurance professional, your life will be far from boring and the type of work that you do can be extremely varied.
Insurance agents and customer service representatives are the front line in the business of risk management. Their objective is to match proper insurance products to the risks and needs of their clients. This requires getting to know and understand the unique risks of each client, learning their business, and building a helpful and trusted relationship. Many insurance agents own their own business and are very entrepreneurial.
Risk analysts and risk managers spend their time identifying and analyzing potential risks, and working with others both inside and outside of their organization to treat the risks. Risk treatment may include creative approaches to control, prevent, and reduce the losses that can result from various risks, which may or may not include risk transfer arrangements such as insurance.
Underwriters spend their time evaluating insurance applications, analyzing the risks that their insurance company is being asked to assume, determining an appropriate scope of coverage and price, and building relationships with their agency partners. Underwriting analysis must strike a balance between meeting the insurance needs of the marketplace and maintaining a profitable insurance operation.
Claims professionals investigate the circumstances of incidents, determine insurance coverage, and settle claims to help people and businesses rebuild and get back to normal after a negative event. They are directly responsible for making the insured whole again. Whereas this is one of the most challenging careers you may ever have, it will also be the most rewarding.
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