70 ON THE RISK vol.22 n.4 (2006) UNDERWRITING IN THE 21ST CENTURY: LIFE OUTSIDE THE HOME OFFICE Eli Rowe Christos Orestis III Chief Executive Officer Consultant Parameds.com Parameds.com New York, NY Yarmouth, ME Executive Summary: Previous articles in this series have explored how to break down silos between underwriting and distribution; the emergence of outsourcing and automation as important underwriting productivity drivers; and, we have analyzed ways to get more value from the ubiquitous—yet paradoxical—attending physician statement (APS). The common thread throughout this series of articles is overcoming the challenges that underwriting departments must face every day as the demands on underwriting departments increase while available resources decrease. For this installment, we spoke with a number of underwriters who have decades of risk management experience, about their perceptions of the industry today and what it is like to be part of the growing trend of “remote underwriting.” Introduction How many years have you been an underwriter? A “perfect storm” of trends in underwriting has All of the participants had significant experience as emerged to challenge the industry in the early years underwriters working for life and health insurers with of the 21st century: a range between 5 and 40 years. All have been 1. An alarming number of the most experienced underwriting on an outsourced basis anywhere from underwriters have reached (or are reaching) retire- 1-5 years. ment age. 2. There are not enough well-trained underwriters What companies were you employed by when coming up through the ranks to fill the void. you were a “home office” underwriter? 3. The demand on underwriting departments to Our participating underwriters have worked for large keep up is being fueled by the increasing volume and small insurance companies, a BGA, and, in some and complexity of applications being generated by a cases, for insurers that no longer exist as their former growing and longer living “baby boom” generation. selves: Bankers Life, BISYS, Connecticut Mutual, First Continental, General American, MONY, Na- When looking at the major online job search sites tional Life of Vermont, The Hartford, United (Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, etc.), there are over Healthcare and UnumProvident. 4,000 cumulative postings for open underwriting po- sitions across the life/health insurance industry on any What product lines have you been responsible given day. That is a lot of competition for a shrinking for? resource pool. Many companies are adapting to this The product lines that our underwriters have under- reality by working with full- and part-time remote written were primarily life and STD/LTD for group underwriters as either employees or contractors. and individual markets, some annuities, healthcare and LTC. For this article, we interviewed a number of under- writers who are currently working from home. We What level of underwriter were you when you asked them questions about how working outside of left the home office? the home office environment has impacted their All of the underwriters had achieved significant rank lifestyle and professional growth, and how they per- and responsibilities by the time they went out on their ceive trends that are impacting the insurance indus- own. We spoke with former director and chief level try. The underwriters we interviewed all have decades underwriters, underwriting officers and senior vice of experience and were very candid about the posi- presidents. Some had been responsible for underwrit- tive and negative aspects of operating as a “remote” ing and operations with staffs in the hundreds and or “outsourced” underwriter. multimillion-dollar budgets, while others had run small teams and remote offices across the U.S. (and in ** Each heading is a question asked of the Canada). participating underwriters, with an aggregate summary of their responses following ** ON THE RISK 71 vol.22 n.4 (2006) How would you describe the current environ- underwriting departments are not staffed to keep up. ment for insurers? There has been a large increase in trial applications, The industry seems to be regrouping after a period of which means more work and the rising importance of turbulence with reinsurers and claims issues. Compa- allocating already stretched resources to sift through nies are experiencing record profits and it appears the profitable and unprofitable cases. Costs and de- that senior executive pay is at an all-time high. A lays associated with requirements continue to be a definite contributing factor to the rise in profitability is bottleneck for underwriting departments. Today, un- cost-cutting. Underwriting departments’ staff and bud- derwriters are being judged as much on quantity of gets are not growing at the same pace as new busi- work and time service as they are on risk experience. ness (and the demand for ever faster time service). This dynamic is creating an even bigger divide be- There is a noticeable trend over the last few years to tween the upper ranks of underwriting management outsource some functions that traditionally were handled and the rank and file staff. in-house. Flex schedules and tele-commuting have also been on the rise. Outsourcing work has been a Is there enough training and grooming of way to access hard-to-find underwriting talent and to underwriters today? cut costs such as benefits and overhead. There seems In the past, companies put much more emphasis on to be a decline in confidence of internal underwriters formal, long-term training. Underwriters operated and awareness that significant talent is now available almost like an apprentice and were part of training on the “open market.” units. They would be groomed to work their way up inside the same company over years. Now underwrit- The general consensus of the current condition of ers are “on their own.” Underwriters rising through underwriting departments was not entirely favorable: the ranks over years are quite rare. Companies are understaffed and overworked, big growth in trial ap- less interested in training and instead look to hire the plications and APS bottlenecks, limited administrative talent they need when they need it. Companies can’t support, not enough training, deteriorating relations afford to wait years for home-grown talent to work with the field, too much pressure for quantity over their way up through the system. Training remains an quality, too much interference and micro-managing, important aspect of an underwriter’s development too much non-essential communication (e-mail) and and being able to stay current on evolving underwrit- distractions (unproductive meetings) and too much ing and medical issues. Training still exists but it has stress. become more “modular” and specific to conditions or trends. Training and staying current are now more the What do you see happening in underwriting responsibility of the individuals to find the resources departments? and time on their own. Underwriting is still a conservative science, but there has been a noticeable shift in attitudes over the last This reality has made the highly skilled/trained under- 30 years to higher risk tolerance as interpretation of writer a hard-to-find (and valuable) commodity, as medical science and societal issues has evolved— experienced underwriters who have been in the busi- many things that were once entirely unacceptable are ness 25 years or more begin to retire. For some now commonplace (and almost quaint in retrospect). underwriters this can mean a lucrative “free agent” A shift in attitude has also happened in the accep- environment or opportunities to operate on their own tance of underwriters working from outside of the terms as a contractor. home office environment. The trend in this direction is more pronounced on the life/DI/LTC side than health. Describe the experience of being an underwriter There are still issues to resolve with communication, working from home. interaction with medical directors, and remote use of Every one of the underwriters interviewed cited how systems. Overall, the misconception that outsourcing much they enjoy the freedom that working from home means people will lose jobs is quickly being replaced has allowed them. They enjoy the ability to better by the realization that it is actually a productivity accommodate personal time with their professional enhancer. Management seems to now view the trend responsibilities. Many are able to contribute to family as less about cost/job cutting and more about access obligations by doing their work during off-hours. The to hard-to-find talent and increased productivity. trade-offs cited include: feeling like they need to work harder to justify their at-home status, as well as feel- At first outsourcing seemed to be taking hold quicker ings of isolation and being “out of the loop” when not in small- to mid-size companies because of both cost interacting in an office environment. and access to underwriter issues; but larger compa- nies are moving in this direction now for the same The underwriters say that they are more productive reasons. As more volume is driven by brokers and the because they are not interrupted by in-office distrac- marketing of guarantee issue and simplified products, tions such as non-productive meetings, water cooler 72 ON THE RISK vol.22 n.4 (2006) gossip and office politics. They say that remote sys- companies can actually benefit from this trend. Real- tem access and the option to work on a 24-7 basis ize that remote workers can actually be more produc- contribute to their productivity, and communications tive and are very motivated to prove it. Some work through e-mail and conference calls keep them in- can be broken up like an assembly line shared be- formed. They do need to take the initiative to stay “in tween remote underwriters and home office under- the loop” with colleagues, read industry periodicals, writers (i.e., tele-underwriting, APS summaries, quick attend industry meetings and join organizations such quotes, claims review, etc.).