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Underwriting specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Janet Ruiz,
Robert Hoyt, Ph.D.
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical underwriting specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for underwriting specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 18.0% of underwriting specialist resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an underwriting specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 underwriting specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how underwriting specialists use customer service:
  • Trained and provided supplementary assistance to automobile sales and customer service associates to facilitate maximum productivity and accuracy.
  • Provide excellent customer service to agents and policy holders with basic to moderately complex policy and procedure questions.

2. Underwriting Guidelines

Underwriting guidelines are a set of rules and requirements an insurer provides to its agents and underwriters. The underwriter then uses these instructions to judge the prospective insured, whether to accept, modify or reject it. These guidelines help the insurers set the criteria for the customer and let them know the amount of money that should be offered to the client, or whether not to offer an insurance policy in the first place.

Here's how underwriting specialists use underwriting guidelines:
  • Examine documentation to ensure accuracy and compliance with existing underwriting guidelines approved loans with specified limits and recommends various payment structures.
  • Analyzed and evaluated renewals by developing competitive and profitable rates using company's underwriting guidelines, authority limits and renewal strategies.

3. Financial Statements

A financial statement is a report of an individual or a company that includes all the information about the declared assets, the use of money, income, and also the contribution of shareholders over a certain period.

Here's how underwriting specialists use financial statements:
  • Review financial statements, credit reports, asset documentation and additional supporting documentation to determine qualifying ratios and processing eligibility.
  • Trained and mentored junior underwriting specialist in reading and interpreting financial statements as well as navigation of new financial systems.

4. Underwriting Process

Here's how underwriting specialists use underwriting process:
  • Mentored new underwriters, responding to questions and providing insights into efficient underwriting processes.
  • Trained new hires on the underwriting process to educate coworkers on best practices and most efficient ways to accomplish daily objectives.

5. Life Insurance

Here's how underwriting specialists use life insurance:
  • Reviewed and analyzed life insurance policy applications, achieving a track record for state insurance guideline compliance.
  • Evaluated and classified risks after developing complete underwriting information on new applications for life insurance.

6. Loss Control

Loss control is a set of measures taken by a financial expert or organization to reduce insurance policy losses. A financial expert will assess and analyze a property for signs of damage and develop loss control measures to mitigate potential risks. The aim of loss control is risk management and saving company assets from future losses.

Here's how underwriting specialists use loss control:
  • Examined insurance claims and made loss control recommendations to promote account profitability.
  • Worked closely with agents to retain premium, effectively manage insured's loss control engineering and claims issues.

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7. Insurance Products

Here's how underwriting specialists use insurance products:
  • Marketed various insurance products to retailers, wholesalers and risk managers developing professional relationships with nationally known insurance brokers.
  • Educated, provided customer support and marketed Cincinnati Insurance products and services to agents.

8. Underwriting Decisions

Here's how underwriting specialists use underwriting decisions:
  • Reviewed health insurance applications and physicians reports and made necessary underwriting decisions.
  • Validated the insurance and/or lender underwriting decisions.

9. Appeals

Here's how underwriting specialists use appeals:
  • Acted as Subject Matter Expert on complex claims appeals that required greater expertise in mortgage underwriting and fraud investigation.
  • Review of appeals; concluding and processing the finalization; communicating the adjustments to the original underwriter for educational purposes.

10. Renewal Accounts

Here's how underwriting specialists use renewal accounts:
  • Handled new and renewal accounts with premium size of $250,000 or greater.
  • Implement corrective measures on renewal accounts as needed.

11. General Liability

Here's how underwriting specialists use general liability:
  • General Liability Coordinator for the Springfield office.
  • Handled property and general liability reinsurance placements.

12. Profitable Growth

Here's how underwriting specialists use profitable growth:
  • Captured profitable growth and drove retention through effective management of a $40M underwriting territory, involvingagency relationship establishment and development.
  • Implemented agency management process to review profitability and strategic alignment of agency plant, which resulted in profitable growth.

13. Data Entry

Data entry means entering data into a company's system with the help of a keyboard. A person responsible for entering data may also be asked to verify the authenticity of the data being entered. A person doing data entry must pay great attention to tiny details.

Here's how underwriting specialists use data entry:
  • Completed data entry for all assigned finance applications.
  • Handled photocopying of cases, filed, data entry and distributed and assigned work items to the appropriate Underwriters.

14. Commercial Property

Here's how underwriting specialists use commercial property:
  • Demonstrated high level, proven ability to underwrite all commercial property casualty lines for designated territory.
  • Negotiate best position and pricing on commercial property insurance policies.

15. Underwriting Policies

Here's how underwriting specialists use underwriting policies:
  • Provide information accurately with the knowledge and understanding of Underwriting policies and procedures according to HIIPA laws.
  • Recommended changes in underwriting policies or procedures which would benefit the region.
top-skills

What skills help Underwriting Specialists find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What type of skills will young underwriting specialists need?

Janet RuizJanet Ruiz LinkedIn profile

Director – Strategic Communication, Insurance Information Institute

The mathematical mind, meet the meaningful purpose (Liberty Mutual). Underwriters are the heart of the insurance process, gathering and researching pertinent information and then, using finely tuned analytical skills to evaluate the acceptability of business and institutional risk. Underwriters are more than just analysts - they are the core relationship builders with agents and clients. They are responsible for managing a profitable portfolio of business by distributing agents and brokers. An underwriting career includes a dynamic blend of analytical and marketing skills. Research, Analytics, Communications, Relationship Building, Marketing.

What technical skills for an underwriting specialist stand out to employers?

Robert Hoyt, Ph.D.Robert Hoyt, Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Department Head and Dudley L. Moore Jr. Chair of Insurance, University of Georgia

The ability to collect information, work with data, and translate this into insights and knowledge is key in insurance going forward. An important focus in our classes is helping students apply what they are learning to real business situations through projects that are often carried out in teams. The growth of digital strategies in insurance means that emerging graduates are excited by and embrace the use and application of such approaches. However, the ability to engage with people to assist them in managing their personal or business risks is what matters most in this business. At the end of the day, building relationships and trust are the key in insurance.

List of underwriting specialist skills to add to your resume

Underwriting specialist skills

The most important skills for an underwriting specialist resume and required skills for an underwriting specialist to have include:

  • Customer Service
  • Underwriting Guidelines
  • Financial Statements
  • Underwriting Process
  • Life Insurance
  • Loss Control
  • Insurance Products
  • Underwriting Decisions
  • Appeals
  • Renewal Accounts
  • General Liability
  • Profitable Growth
  • Data Entry
  • Commercial Property
  • Underwriting Policies
  • Risk Analysis
  • Underwriting Authority
  • Phone Calls
  • Real Estate
  • Insurance Policies
  • Credit Decisions
  • Tax Returns
  • Bonds
  • Insurance Applications
  • Mortgage Loans
  • Credit History
  • Credit Reports
  • Loss Ratio
  • Profitable Book
  • Loan Applications
  • Automated Underwriting
  • FHA
  • Fannie MAE
  • Business Practices
  • Review Process
  • ISO
  • Investor Guidelines
  • FNMA
  • Underwriting Issues
  • Inbound Calls
  • Medical History
  • Financial Data
  • Outbound Calls
  • Policy Changes
  • Business Applications
  • Bank Statements

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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