Senior Manager: Underwriting at Telesure Investment Holdings (TIH)

JOB PURPOSE

• Oversee a team of underwriters. Design, implement and manage a technical underwriting framework for TIH Business Insurance (BI) that fosters superior risk selection, streamlined processing, loss ratio management and underwriting profitability.

Responsibilities

Underwriting

• Provide integrated long-term solutions and strategies for a significant area of responsibility.
• Make authoritative decisions about technical or professional underwriting and business enhancement solutions that would significantly improve business performance. Introduce underwriting rules on the acceptance of business.
• Resolve escalated underwriting complaints and escalated underwriting opinions on claims.
• Manage and contribute to the renewal of BI’s reinsurance programme in line with business strategy.
• Ensure optimal placement of facultative cases.

Operations Management

• Support the overall underwriting strategy by developing and delivering operational plans and outcomes for a large portion of the business.

Product & Solution Development

• Take responsibility for developing and delivering a major part of the organization's product development program.
• Manage a medium-sized specialist team. May also be responsible for managing the definition, development and delivery of a significant product or service, ensuring alignment with customer requirements.
• Review and enhance BI products accordingly (addressing gaps and competitively).
• Undertake market opportunity assessment for BI products and undertake comparative analysis on key competitors’ products.
• Assist the Actuarial team to formulate and develop a comprehensive rating/ pricing methodology for BI non-motor.

Risk Management & Analysis

• Manage and evaluate individual risks for acceptance where potential high risk scenarios exist or where there are changes to a clients’ claims behaviour.
• Determine underwriting processes and minimum risk acceptance criteria for BI's.

Underwriting Policy Development & Implementation

• Develop a comprehensive underwriting framework for a significant area of the business.
• Take full responsibility for creating underwriting procedures and monitoring their implementation within underwriting.
• Manage and monitor the adherence to set mandates through technical audits and controls as set in the underwriting framework.
• Leverage all available information from our partners, the industry and internally to ensure we are constantly reviewing the underwriting processes, systems and protocols with a view to improve efficiencies and to ensure best practice.

Operational Compliance

• Lead and ensure that business activities within a area of responsibility comply with relevant external regulatory codes and with internal policies and procedures to minimize business risk and to protect the reputation of the organization.
• Undertake technical underwriting audits.
• Develop and manage business rules around when audits are required and adhere to underwriting guidelines and standards by managing audits.
• Ensure that business objectives and personal delivery aligns to and meets the TSW principles.

Leadership and Direction

• Set and communicate the underwriting strategy and its relationship to the organization's mission, vision and values; clarify the actions needed to implement it within the area of responsibility; motivate people to commit to these and to doing extraordinary things to achieve the organization's business goals.
• Articulate and communicate key deliverables and business context to the team.
• Lead the team through required business processes, systems and knowledge.
• Ensure development plans for the team are created, contracted and monitored.
• Revise coaching needs and role profiles to enable customer focused context and expectations.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Identify and manage stakeholders up to top management level and manage internal and external stakeholder relationships (TIH companies; Brokers;
• Reinsurance brokers; Management colleagues). Find out their needs/issues/ concerns and reacting to these by leading and coordinating the development of stakeholder engagement plans to support the communication of business information and decisions.

Performance Management

• Manage and report on the performance of the underwriting area; set appropriate performance objectives for direct reports and hold them accountable for achieving these; take appropriate corrective action where necessary to ensure the achievement of annual business objectives.
• Manage all aspects of staff resourcing, succession planning, management and development ensuring the right people are in place to support service delivery, achieving production and performance targets at all times.
• Align performance management contract to overall business drivers and customer experience expectations.
• Hold monthly team meetings and ensure that actions are recorded and executed.

Organizational Capability Building

• Evaluate the capabilities of staff within the department to identify gaps and prioritize development activities.
• Implement the organization's formal development frameworks within the area of responsibility.
• Coach and mentor others to support the development of the organization's talent pool.
• Revise coaching needs and role profiles to customer focused context and expectations.
• Provide technical product input to staff at various levels to enable others to improve performance and fulfill personal potential.

Personal Capability Building

• Act as subject matter expert in an area of expertise, policy, regulation, or operational management for the team and beyond in the function.
• Maintain external accreditations and in-depth understanding of current and emerging technologies, external regulation, and industry best practices through continuing professional development, attending conferences, and reading specialist media.

Insights and Reporting

• Set and lead execution of a complex reporting plan, creating strategies and templates to report data in a meaningful way.
• Create, present, and communicate high-impact data and analytics insights and recommendations to critical internal and external stakeholders.
• Conduct monthly statistical analyses (loss ratio, multi-claimants and claims trends analyses) and engage underwriting (policy admin) to implement appropriate proposed corrective measures.
• Monitor implementation of remedial measures.
• Prepare and contribute effectively to forums and committees where represented.

EDUCATION

General Education

• Grade 12/ SAQA Accredited Equivalent (Essential); Relevant Degree in Underwriting or Mathematics or similar (Essential); RE 5 (Essential); FAIS recognized qualification (Essential); FIISA, AIISA or Diploma in Insurance or equivalent (Advantageous); Business Analysis certificate or similar (Advantageous)

Experience

General Experience

• 10 or more years experience in short-term insurance (mainly MMIII and Assets
• All Risks wordings, BI product experience (Essential); Short-term insurance

Managerial Experience

• industry - commercial underwriting experience (Essential) 6 or more years experience of planning, managing and organizing resources within short / medium timescales within the overall policy framework (Essential)