Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Hi I currently work in the underwriting department of a car insurance firm. I have experience working throughout the company claims, customer service, renewals and sales so have a good knowledge of UK car insurance. I am looking at emigrating to Canada and have a lot of questions:
would like to know whether the car insurance industry is similar or completely different?

What the job market is like?

Is there any areas where these jobs are particularly in demand?

Do you need to have the CIP in order to get a job?

Has anyone done the CIP from the UK?

Average salary?

Thank you

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Job market and salary depend on where you're based. A good starting point, check out the websites for some of the larger companies ( intact, rsa, aviva, portage mutual, co-operators) As for CIP, again depends on the company and position you take ( ie: trainee UW or senior UW)

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Unless you are Canadian, you may want to check out what permit or visa you could come to Canada under. Read the Wiki on this site.

I have my doubts an insurance job would qualify for a positive LMIA. If under 30 look at IEC.

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

You might want to check out Johnson Insurance in St Johns. They are part of RSA Group and as such might be more open to UK experience.

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

RSA and Aviva write car insurance in Canada but I don't know how transferrable underwriting skills would be. I should think most of the knowledge needed in P&C insurance here is local.

For example, how the Facility Association works, which Provinces have risk sharing pools and when they apply, which provincial legislation applies to which policies; can you use gender, credit rating and so on to rate this policy? Well, perhaps not on a Thursday in Newfoundland. If some criterion is not allowed, what surrogate is used?

Underwriting in the UK is about the risk, here it's about the administrivia.

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

I work for RSA and Johnson from their Nova Scotia office, I work in claims and risk mgt. I worked for LV= in the UK before moving 7 years ago. We have a mix of staff from all over the world.

CIP is preferable it also helps with understanding the different insurance climate here from the UK.

I joined insurance institute of Canada while still in the UK. I was able to arrange sitting my first exam in London before we left the UK, I then finished it once I moved to Canada. Company paid for my courses.

Ontario is the main hub but all the big players have offices throughout Canada. It depends on structure, our personal lines underwriting is now centralized out of Ontario, we have commercial UW presence in our various regions, claims is a mixture.

Starting your CIP from the UK would be very beneficial for the job hunt. The institute in Canada liaised with their counterparts in the UK to arrange the exam sitting for me.

Hope that helps

Nikki

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

100% agree 😊

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Some additional thoughts, the broker market here is far bigger than the UK, so broker channels may also be an option for you , also Insurance is highly regulated, you may be covered under company licensing or you may need individual, depends on the role/ company you join and the Province,for example as a claims examiner/adjuster you are required to hold a licence regardless of Company status and this requires CIP exams , for some Atlantic provinces and ️Quebec , Underwriters
are generally covered under a company licence if they are the insurer.

I also agree LMIA is unlikely I have only seen intra company transfers for senior roles, the insurance market here is quite full with available people, however experience is hard to come by and if you can get here visa wise and have shown commitment to the studying , companies are definitely interested, it's a struggle to find experienced people, a huge number in the industry are now in retirement stages

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Admiral insurance has a large office in Halifax. You'd fit in right now as their client base is in the uk.
Doesn't help you get into the Canadian insurance market though.

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Just a thought but insurance companies in Canada are standardizing on a single software package, Aviva, RSA, Cooperators, Economical, ICBC, Wawanesa and some others use, or are adopting, the Guidewire suite; ClaimsCenter, PolicyCenter, BillingCenter. If you happened to be familiar with any or all of these products it would be a selling point.

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Good point, we are currently switching to GW claim centre

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Oh, I know.

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

:p lol just saw your reply above, roll on April 2017!!

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

One unit of GW is fine, Claims Centre in particular is easy to use, but once you have multiple lines under GW it quickly becomes very difficult to get anything done and everyone wants their old system back. April 2017 might be good but April 2019 not so much.

Re: Car insurance underwriter jobs
 

Good to know 👍 just claims right now for us ....