Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Underwriting Support Assistant

🎯 Role Definition

The Underwriting Support Assistant is an operations-oriented role that partners with underwriters to ensure accurate, efficient policy life-cycle management. The role focuses on intake and triage of new business and renewal submissions, collecting and validating documentation, preparing risk summaries, executing policy changes, communicating with agents and vendors, and maintaining underwriting systems and audit-ready records. This position supports underwriting decision-making by delivering timely, organized information, tracking key metrics, and continuously improving submission workflows.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Insurance Customer Service Representative
Administrative Coordinator in Insurance or Financial Services
Insurance Claims Assistant

Advancement To:

Underwriter (Assistant to Associate level)
Senior Underwriting Support Specialist
Underwriting Analyst or Risk Analyst

Lateral Moves:

Policy Administration Specialist
Renewal & Endorsements Coordinator
Broker/Agent Support Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Triage and intake incoming submissions (new business and renewals), reviewing applications, supplemental questionnaires, loss runs, financials, and other documentation to ensure completeness and compliance with underwriting guidelines before routing to the appropriate underwriter.
Prepare clear, concise submission summaries and risk synopses that highlight key underwriting considerations, exposures, coverage gaps, and recommended follow-up items to enable efficient underwriting decisions.
Input and maintain accurate policy data in policy administration systems (e.g., Guidewire, AMS360, Duck Creek), ensuring that coverage terms, limits, deductibles, effective dates, and insured details are consistently correct and audit-ready.
Process policy issuance, endorsements, cancellations, and reinstatements in accordance with company procedures, including generating and distributing policy documents, invoices, and certificates of insurance to brokers and clients.
Calculate premiums, adjustments, and commissions using rating manuals, rate sheets, and rating engines; prepare premium breakdowns and billing schedules for underwriter review and client communications.
Coordinate and order third-party reports and services (inspection reports, loss control surveys, motor vehicle reports, credit checks, flood determinations), track delivery timelines, and flag critical findings to underwriting teams.
Maintain physical and electronic underwriting files, ensuring all documentation is indexed, retained, and archived per record retention policies and regulatory requirements.
Conduct data validation and quality control checks on submissions and policy records, identify discrepancies or missing information, and drive follow-up with agents, brokers, or clients to obtain corrections or additional documentation.
Support renewals workflow: prepare pre-renewal packages, compile historical loss data and coverage changes, issue renewal quotes and documentation, and track broker/client responses and binding instructions.
Assist underwriters in the preparation of referral packages to senior underwriters or underwriting committees, including assembling relevant exposure data, reinsurance implications, and proposed terms.
Monitor and report on underwriting KPIs such as submission turnaround time, hit ratios, binding rates, outstanding requirements, and renewal retention; prepare weekly or monthly dashboards for underwriting management.
Apply company underwriting rules, coverage manuals, and regulatory constraints in day-to-day support tasks and escalate potential compliance issues or complex coverage exposures to underwriting leadership.
Facilitate communication between internal stakeholders — underwriters, claims, actuarial, legal, and finance — ensuring underwriting actions align with enterprise risk appetite and accounting practices.
Provide administrative and scheduling support for inspections, underwriting meetings, and underwriting committees, including preparing agendas, summarizing action items, and following up on deliverables.
Assist with audit preparation and internal/external compliance reviews by compiling documentation, answering information requests, and implementing remediation actions identified by auditors.
Manage binder issuance and temporary coverage confirmations, documenting binding authority limits, transaction approvals, and date-sensitive conditions to mitigate coverage gaps.
Execute endorsement processing workflows to ensure timely policy changes for client requests such as limits, named insured updates, additional insureds, or changes in exposure.
Support catastrophe and high-volume event response by triaging surge submissions, prioritizing high-risk exposures, and coordinating rapid information flows between underwriting and claims.
Maintain and update underwriting procedures, checklists, and knowledge base articles; recommend process improvements to streamline submission handling and reduce cycle times.
Support reinsurance and facultative placement activities by preparing ceded submission packages, tracking treaty limits, and maintaining reinsurance documentation tied to ceded policies.
Train and mentor junior underwriting support staff and cross-functional peers on systems, SOPs, and quality standards to scale underwriting operations and maintain consistent service levels.
Participate in special projects such as system upgrades, data migration, and implementation of automated workflows; provide user acceptance testing feedback and post-deployment support to ensure operational readiness.

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 marketing and distribution teams with production of underwriting product collateral and FAQs for brokers.
Provide high-quality customer service to internal and external stakeholders, answering policy-related inquiries and escalating complex issues.
Conduct periodic file audits to ensure documentation completeness and conformity with underwriting standards and regulatory requirements.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Deep familiarity with insurance underwriting principles, coverage terminology, and exposure identification across commercial and/or personal lines.
Hands-on experience with policy administration systems and underwriting platforms (examples: Guidewire, AMS360, Duck Creek, Vertafore).
Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel (VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, pivot tables) for premium calculations, reconciliation, and ad-hoc reporting.
Experience using rating engines, premium calculators, and binding tools to support accurate pricing and issuance workflows.
Basic data literacy: ability to extract, clean, and interpret submission and policy data; familiarity with SQL or reporting tools (Power BI, Tableau) is a plus.
Document management and e-signature tool experience (DocuSign, Adobe Sign, Confluence, SharePoint).
Knowledge of regulatory and compliance requirements relevant to underwriting (state insurance regulations, privacy / data protection).
Familiarity with claims triage basics and how claims history impacts underwriting decisions (loss runs review).
Experience with CRM systems and broker/agency portals for submission tracking and communication.
Understanding of reinsurance concepts and documentation requirements for cessions and facultative placements.

Soft Skills

Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy in data entry, documentation, and policy processing.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills for liaising with underwriters, brokers, agents, and internal stakeholders.
Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities and a high volume of submissions under tight deadlines.
Analytical mindset with problem-solving orientation; able to identify anomalies and recommend corrective actions.
Customer-focused approach with professional service orientation toward brokers and insureds.
Collaborative team player who builds trust across underwriting, claims, actuarial, and distribution teams.
Adaptability and resilience to operate in a fast-paced, evolving underwriting environment.
Good judgment and discretion when handling confidential or sensitive insurer and client information.
Time management and prioritization skills to ensure high-impact tasks are completed first.
Initiative and continuous improvement mindset: proactively propose process automation and efficiency gains.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or GED; related insurance certifications and relevant vocational training accepted.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business Administration, Risk Management, Insurance, Economics, or a related field.
Industry certifications such as AINS, AIC, CPCU (in progress or completed) are advantageous.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Risk Management & Insurance
Business Administration / Finance
Economics / Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1 - 4 years in insurance operations, underwriting support, policy administration, or related roles.

Preferred:

2+ years supporting underwriters in commercial or personal lines with demonstrable experience managing submissions, endorsements, and policy issuance.
Experience working with common industry systems (Guidewire, Duck Creek, AMS360, Vertafore) and familiarity with regulatory filing and audit processes.
Demonstrated track record improving operational workflows, implementing checklists/SOPs, or contributing to system implementations.