Specialist Underwriter: Group Risk at Old Mutual South Africa

Job Description

The successful incumbent will:

• Use specialist technical knowledge to accept risk and/or liability on behalf of the organization for individuals with group risk cover exceeding the evidence of health (“free cover limit”).
• This individual will manage complex; high value and/ or contentious cases and complaints. 
• They will also assist with the review and formulation of best practice guidelines in keeping with the latest clinical and industry developments.
•  Further, they will have managerial responsibility for a team of 3 – 5 underwriting staff (administration and technical). 
• Problem solve, investigate, identify root cause and resolve management queries

GENERIC KEY RESULT AREAS

• Personal Effectiveness      
• Accepts and lives the company values
• Accountable for service delivery through own efforts
• Collaborates effectively with others to achieve results
• Individually accountable for managing own time, tasks and output quality
• Broadening individual skills on an ongoing basis
• Relationship Building         
• Maintains and develops relationships with relevant stakeholders
• Risk Management 
• Responsible for decision making with high Underwriting limits
• Quality assurance of Underwriters’ work
• Auditing

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

• Matric with Biology, Mathematics or Accounting essential
• Minimum R5 000 000 Individual and/or group Life Underwriting limits
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience as a Life Underwriter in the Financial Service Industry
• BSc in Health Sciences or Life Sciences, Medically aligned degree or BCom Business Science or Accounting would be advantageous
• Experience in coaching and providing technical support would be advantageous
• Line management experience would be advantageous
• Experience in management of technical queries
• Proficient in MS Office i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Knowledge of Underwriting operations, E.g. distribution of work, MIS etc.
• Well-developed interpersonal skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, particularly the ability to have difficult conversations
• Attention to detail
• Customer focused
• Ability to handle confidential information
• Well developed problem solving skills
• Proactive engagement where necessary
• Focused on meeting deadlines and ensure completion of tasks
• Good presentation skills
• Must be a team player
• Responsible for risk evaluation, pricing and selection / rejection of renewal business for all assigned accounts within the portfolio. Research problems and take initiative in recommending solutions for customer and financial issues that will enable the organisation to profitably accept the risk that our policies cover.
• Responsible for day to day decision-making; queries on group risk underwriting cases
• Responsible for dealing with complex; high-value and/ or contentious underwriting cases
• Responsible for managing escalations; complaints and complex underwriting queries
• Creates, reviews and updates best practise underwriting guidelines in keeping with the latest clinical and industry developments
• Leads underwriting project and IT developments with the support of the business support specialists; IT teams and other stakeholders
• May have managerial responsibility for a small underwriting team of 3 - 5 team members
• Able to discuss, explain and negotiate underwriting decisions with reinsurers; senior clients and intermediaries
• Supports the provision of underwriting reports for various stakeholders
• Identifies and supports the implementation of process changes in the underwriting team to improve the customer experience
• Able to interact with pricing; renewal; actuarial and retirement fund teams to support the corporate business achieve its goal

Skills

• Customer Experience (CX), Decision Making, People Management

Competencies

• Action Oriented
• Business Insight
• Communicates Effectively
• Decision Quality
• Financial Acumen
• Instills Trust
• Manages Complexity
• Optimizes Work Processes

Closing Date

• 15 May 2025 , 23:59