Insurance risk surveyor

Insurance risk surveyor job description: Typical employers | Qualifications and training | Key skills | Useful links | Find jobs and courses

Insurance risk surveyors may work in a general capacity or may specialise in a particular area such as fire, health and safety, theft or public liability. Typical responsibilities include:

• visiting sites alone or with underwriters
• assessing and evaluating risk by undertaking appropriate research
• carrying out detailed site surveys
• writing and proofreading reports for underwriters
• providing advice to clients
• making recommendations to underwriters about required improvements
• assigning quality grades after improvements have been made
• liaising with health and safety inspectors, clients, insurance brokers and underwriters
• applying technical knowledge or experience
• assessing risks to buildings or to employees or customers
• collecting photographs as evidence
• maintaining awareness of changes in legislation and trading processes.

Typical employers of insurance risk surveyors

• general domestic and commercial insurance or reinsurance companies
• insurance risk management departments
• life insurance or assurance companies and brokers of varying sizes.

Vacancies are advertised by careers services, specialist recruitment agencies, via the Internet, in newspapers including The Financial Times and The London Evening Standard, and in publications such as Business Week, The London Financial News, Insurance Times, Post Magazine and Fire Prevention and Fire Engineers Journal. Vacancies tend to generate strong competition, making early applications advisable.

Qualifications and training required

Although a degree is not essential for entry into the profession, most risk surveyors are graduates. Qualifications in subjects such as business studies, law, management, insurance, mathematics, risk management, economics or engineering can be helpful, as can an MSc in risk management or financial markets. It is essential to possess previous insurance industry/underwriting experience – as much as five years for some positions. Only a very small number of graduates enter risk surveyor immediately after graduating.

Key skills for insurance risk surveyors

• commercially aware
• confident
• diplomatic
• motivation
• strong time management skills
• the ability to work effectively under pressure
• excellent IT skills
• organizational skills
• problem-solving skills
• interpersonal skills
• team work
• communication skills.

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