Insurance risk consultant

Insurance risk consultants prepare reports for insurance underwriters. For this purpose, they undertake surveys in order to determine the potential financial risk for personal products, properties or sites.

The following job titles also refer to insurance risk consultant:

insurance risk surveyor
insurance adviser
insurance analyst
insurance risk associate
risk and insurance consultant
insurance consultant

A bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, mathematics, or a related field is generally required to work as an insurance risk consultant.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Insurance risk consultant is a Skill level 3 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to insurance risk consultant.

actuarial assistant
property insurance underwriter
insurance fraud investigator
insurance claims handler
insurance underwriter

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of insurance risk consultant. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of insurance risk consultant with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

actuarial consultant
insurance rating analyst
insurance agency manager
insurance claims manager
dividend analyst

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of insurance risk consultant.

• Insurance law: The law and legislation concerning the policies of transferring risks or losses from one party, the insured, to another, the insurer, in exchange for a periodic payment. This includes the regulation of insurance claims and the business of insurance.
• Survey techniques: Techniques on how to identify a target audience, choose the right survey method and analyse the data.
• Principles of insurance: Understand the principles of insurance, including third party liability, stock and facilities.
• Actuarial science: The rules of applying mathematical and statistical techniques to determine potential or existing risks in various industries, such as finance or insurance.
• Types of insurance: The various types of risk or loss transfer policies that exist and their characteristics, such as health insurance, car insurance or life insurance.

These skills are necessary for the role of insurance risk consultant.

• Conduct financial surveys: Conduct the procedures of a financial survey from the initial formulation and compilation of the questions, identifying the target audience, managing the survey method and operations, managing the processing of acquired data, to analysing the results.
• Advise on risk management: Provide advice on risk management policies and prevention strategies and their implementation, being aware of different kinds of risks to a specific organisation.
• Perform risk analysis: Identify and assess factors that may jeopardise the success of a project or threaten the organisation’s functioning. Implement procedures to avoid or minimise their impact.
• Obtain financial information: Gather information on securities, market conditions, governmental regulations and the financial situation, goals and needs of clients or companies.
• Estimate damage: Estimate damage in case of accidents or natural disasters.
• Analyse insurance risk: Analyse the probability and size of the risk that is to be insured, and estimate the value of movable or immovable property of the client.
• Analyse financial risk: Identify and analyse risks that could impact an organisation or individual financially, such as credit and market risks, and propose solutions to cover against those risks.
• Prepare survey report: Gather the analysed data from the survey and write a detailed report on the outcome of the survey.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of insurance risk consultant. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Statistics: The study of statistical theory, methods and practices such as collection, organisation, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. It deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments in order to forecast and plan work-related activities.
• Debt systems: The processes needed to obtain goods or services before payment and when a sum of money is owed or overdue.
• Modern portfolio theory: The theory of finance that attempts to either maximise the profit of an investment equivalent to the risk taken or to reduce the risk for the expected profit of an investment by judiciously choosing the right combination of financial products.
• Claims procedures: The different procedures that are used to formally request a payment for a suffered loss from an insurance company.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of insurance risk consultant. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Collect property financial information: Collect information concerning the previous transactions involving the property, such as the prices at which the property had been previously sold and the costs that went into renovations and repairs, in order to obtain a clear image of the property’s value.
• Produce materials for decision making: Compile relevant data, write reports and occasionally prepare presentations to communicate information that will help the business management team to take decisions.
• Calculate insurance rate: Gather information on your client’s situation and calculate their premium on the basis of various factors such as their age, the place where they live and the value of their house, property and other relevant assets.
• Apply statistical analysis techniques: Use models (descriptive or inferential statistics) and techniques (data mining or machine learning) for statistical analysis and ICT tools to analyse data, uncover correlations and forecast trends.
• Review insurance process: Analyse all documentation related to a specific insurance case in order to ensure that the application for insurance or the claims process was handled according to guidelines and regulations, that the case will not pose significant risk to the insurer or whether claims assessment was correct, and to assess the further course of action.
• Synthesise financial information: Collect, revise and put together financial information coming from different sources or departments in order to create a document with unified financial accounts or plans.
• Decide on insurance applications: Assess applications for an insurance policy, taking into account the risk analyses and client information, in order to deny or approve the application and set in motion the necessary procedures following the decision.
• Provide support in financial calculation: Provide colleagues, clients or other parties with financial support for complex files or calculations.
• Perform debt investigation: Use research techniques and tracing strategies to identify overdue payment arrangements and address them
• Create underwriting guidelines: Create guidelines for the assessment of risks and determining whether acceptance of liability and granting payments is worth the risk for the organisation. Develop improved methods of analysis which ensure that all aspects of the underwriting process are examined.
• Create insurance policies: Write a contract that includes all the necessary data, such as the insured product, the payment to be made, how often the payment is needed, the personal details of the insured and on what conditions the insurance is valid or invalid.
• Compile statistical data for insurance purposes: Produce statistics on potential risks such as natural and technical disasters and production downtimes.
• Create risk maps: Use data visualisation tools in order to communicate the specific financial risks, their nature and impact for an organisation.
• Organise a damage assessment: Organise a damage assessment by indicating an expert to identify and examine the damage, give information and instructions to experts and follow up on the experts, and write a damage report.

3321 – Insurance representatives

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References

1. Insurance risk consultant – ESCO
2. Featured image: Photo by Maranda Vandergriff on Unsplash