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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Insurance Rater

💰 $ - $

InsuranceUnderwritingRisk ManagementActuarial

🎯 Role Definition

The Insurance Rater is responsible for accurately determining insurance premiums by applying rating rules, rating manuals, loss costs, endorsements, and state-specific regulations to individual and commercial insurance applications and endorsements. This role involves working across policy administration systems, rating engines, underwriting guidelines, and regulatory filings to ensure premiums are calculated fairly, consistently, and in compliance with company standards and external regulations. A successful Insurance Rater demonstrates meticulous attention to detail, deep familiarity with rating methodologies (manual and algorithmic), and strong communication skills to partner with underwriters, product actuaries, compliance, and customer service teams.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Rater / Rating Assistant
  • Customer Service Representative in Personal or Commercial Lines
  • Junior Underwriting Support or Insurance Operations Associate

Advancement To:

  • Senior Insurance Rater / Lead Rater
  • Underwriting Analyst or Underwriter
  • Rate Modeling Analyst or Product/Rating Analyst
  • Pricing Analyst / Actuarial Analyst

Lateral Moves:

  • Policy Administration Specialist
  • Compliance Analyst (Insurance)
  • Customer Escalations and Claims Liaison

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Accurately calculate premiums, surcharges, credits, and endorsements for personal and commercial insurance policies by applying state-specific rating rules, company filing documents, and insurer rate manuals in the policy administration system and rating engine.
  • Interpret and implement rate filings and manual changes by translating actuarial rate exhibits and state filing approvals into rating logic, configuration, and rule changes across rating engines and policy administration systems.
  • Configure, test, and maintain rating logic in internal pricing tools or third-party rating engines (e.g., Guidewire Rating, Milliman, Duck Creek, or proprietary rater systems) to ensure consistent application of business rules and underwriting standards.
  • Review and audit new business and endorsement transactions for rating accuracy, detecting undercharges or overcharges, and adjusting premium calculations in accordance with company policies and regulatory requirements.
  • Collaborate closely with product, actuarial, and underwriting teams to validate rate plans, loss cost changes, and product eligibility rules prior to production releases and state rollouts.
  • Perform regression testing and scenario testing on rating system updates to validate that changes produce expected premium outcomes across a wide range of risk profiles and state jurisdictions.
  • Maintain comprehensive documentation of rating rules, system configurations, test cases, and known issues to support audits, regulatory reviews, and operational continuity.
  • Respond to complex rating inquiries from underwriters, brokers, agents, and customer service teams with clear explanations of applied rating logic, endorsements, discounts, surcharges, and regulatory constraints.
  • Reconcile monthly and quarterly premium reporting to ensure rating calculations align with accounting, actuarial reports, and operational metrics; investigate variances and implement corrective actions.
  • Work with compliance and legal teams to monitor state bulletins, regulatory changes, and filing outcome communications to identify impacts to rating logic and submit required system updates promptly.
  • Assist in the development and deployment of automated rating solutions, including scripting rate tables, building rule engines, and documenting automation logic to reduce manual interventions and increase throughput.
  • Triage and resolve high-priority rating escalations and production defects by coordinating with IT, development, and QA teams to prioritize fixes and implement patch releases with minimal disruption to sales and policy processing.
  • Train and mentor junior raters, operations staff, and new hires on rating methodologies, system workflows, and quality assurance best practices to build team capability and consistency.
  • Participate in cross-functional product launches, providing rating expertise to ensure new products, endorsements, and discounts are accurately reflected in production systems at go-live.
  • Conduct root cause analysis on recurring rating errors, develop corrective action plans, update workflows, and implement preventive controls to reduce rework and ensure rating integrity.
  • Build and maintain mapping documentation between underwriting rules, rating tables, and policy system fields to support data integrity and enable faster change implementation across platforms.
  • Analyze competitor and market rate structures, helps gather competitive intelligence and provides recommendations for rate plan design and discount strategies in collaboration with product and actuarial teams.
  • Support rate revision projects by running impact analysis, modeling premium changes across portfolios, and summarizing expected financial impacts for business stakeholders and regulators.
  • Ensure accurate handling of unique or complex rating scenarios (e.g., experience modification, payroll exposure, aggregate limits, multi-location accounts, ISO endorsements) and escalate unclear cases to senior analysts or actuaries.
  • Execute quality assurance checks for renewals and re-rating processes to confirm persistence of correct rating logic on policy renewal cycles, and correct any drift from expected pricing.
  • Maintain confidentiality and accuracy for sensitive pricing data and proprietary rate logic, complying with corporate data governance and information security standards.
  • Participate in internal and external audits related to rating and pricing practices, providing evidence of controls, test results, and compliance with filing and regulatory requirements.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist product and actuarial teams with back-testing of rating changes and preparing summarized deliverables for leadership.
  • Provide subject matter expertise to IT during deployments and help construct rollback plans for rating releases.
  • Help maintain the knowledge base and FAQs for agents and internal teams on rating practices and common pricing issues.
  • Partner with the customer service team to support agent escalations and clarify premium calculations for high-value accounts.
  • Participate in continuing education and professional development activities to remain current on rating tools, insurance regulations, and best practices.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Expert knowledge of rating methodologies for Personal Lines (Auto, Homeowners) and Commercial Lines (CGL, BOP, Workers’ Compensation), including manual rating and exposure-based rating.
  • Hands-on experience with rating engines and policy administration systems such as Guidewire InsuranceSuite (Rating, PolicyCenter), Duck Creek, Applied Epic, or proprietary rater systems.
  • Strong Excel proficiency including advanced formulas, pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, and experience building test case workbooks for rate validation.
  • Familiarity with SQL for querying policy and rating databases to run test scenarios, investigate exceptions, and prepare impact analysis.
  • Experience implementing rate filings and interpreting actuarial exhibits, loss cost revisions (ISO/NCCI), and state-specific endorsement language.
  • Demonstrated ability to author and maintain rating rules, rate tables, and configuration artifacts in version-controlled environments.
  • Experience with test planning and execution for rating changes, including regression test design, scenario matrices, and automated test scripts where applicable.
  • Knowledge of insurance regulatory frameworks and compliance requirements for rating and filing practices across multiple U.S. states or international jurisdictions.
  • Ability to use rate simulation and modeling tools to project premium impacts and summarize findings for actuarial and product stakeholders.
  • Familiarity with change management tools and incident tracking systems (e.g., JIRA, ServiceNow) to document defects, change requests, and release notes.
  • Experience with scripting or automation tools (e.g., Python, VBA) to automate repetitive rating validations and reporting.
  • Understanding of exposure bases, endorsements, experience modification, rating territories, and underwriting rules that influence premium calculations.

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a methodical approach to debugging rating issues and performing root cause analysis.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills for explaining complex rating logic to non-technical stakeholders, agents, and underwriters.
  • High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy, especially when handling financial-impacting rating changes and refunds.
  • Time management and prioritization skills to juggle concurrent releases, escalations, and operational work with competing deadlines.
  • Collaborative team player who can build relationships across actuarial, product, underwriting, compliance, IT, and operations teams.
  • Customer-focused mindset with the ability to handle escalations professionally and preserve client and agent trust.
  • Adaptability and willingness to learn new rating platforms, regulatory environments, and product lines.
  • Bias for action with strong follow-through to closure on defects, audit findings, and continuous improvement initiatives.
  • Critical thinking and the ability to synthesize data into concise executive summaries and recommendations.
  • Coaching and mentoring skills to help develop junior team members and increase team throughput.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Associate’s degree or equivalent experience in Insurance, Finance, Business, Mathematics, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Actuarial Science, Risk Management, Business Administration, Mathematics, or a related discipline.
  • Professional designations preferred: CPCU, AINS, ARM, or progress toward actuarial credentials.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Actuarial Science
  • Risk Management / Insurance
  • Finance
  • Business Administration
  • Mathematics / Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–5 years of hands-on rating, policy administration, or underwriting support experience for entry to mid-level roles.
  • 5+ years for senior or lead rater positions, with demonstrated experience across multiple product lines and rating systems.

Preferred:

  • Experience implementing rate filings and configuring rating rules in commercial and personal lines rating engines.
  • Prior exposure to regulatory compliance, state filing processes, or actuarial/pricing collaboration.
  • Proven track record of driving rating accuracy improvements, automation of validations, and reducing rating escalations through process improvements.
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