Insurance Jobs

Written by Sonal Sharma - Mon, 10 Mar 2025

Insurance Jobs

Job Profiles in Insurance

Types of Companies Offering Jobs in Insurance

Entry Level Job Profiles in Insurance

Public Sector Insurance Companies Jobs

Private Sector Jobs in Insurance

Insurance Jobs in India Important Links

Global Insurance Jobs Important Links

Insurance Jobs in India have greatly increased with liberalization of the Insurance Sector and advent of private players. These Job opportunities are a result of innovative products, better packaging, improved customer service and better training of employees.

Today, insurance companies have openings in marketing, distribution, underwriting, actuarial, operations and investing departments.

Insurance Jobs are available in:

1. Accounts

2. Audit and Risk Management

3. Actuarial

4. Administration

5. Business Research

6. Channel Development

7. Customer Service

8. Claims

9. Group Sales

10. Legal & Compliance

11. Marketing

12. Operations

13. Sales- Alternate Channel/Retail/Direct

14. Underwriting

15. Quality Management

Insurance Professionals are recruited by:

1. Public and Private Insurance Companies

2. Reinsurance Companies

3. Insurance Brokers

4. Re-Insurance Brokers

5. Actuarial firms

6. Health Insurance Firms

7. Third Party Administrators(TPA)

8. Consulting Firms

9. Banks

10. Non-Banking Finance Companies

11. Micro Finance Companies

12. IT Companies

Entry Level Placement in these organizations is as:

1. Management Trainees

2. Executive Trainees

3. Business Analysts

4. Business Development Manager

5. Actuarial Analyst

6. Insurance Analyst

The type of job which you get as fresher in the insurance sector Depends both upon the type of the organization and the education or skills of the applicant. The job options in insurance in India are today more varied and require the applicant to possess higher level of skills and specialized trainings.

There are two broad streams of insurance –general insurance and life insurance. Life Insurers transact life insurance business while general Insurers transact the rest. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is the regulatory body for the insurance industry in India Some insurance careers are highly specialised and require relevant specialised qualifications while others are open to all graduates.

Let us see what these different insurance jobs mean

Actuaries help design plans and evaluate the financial risks a company takes when it sells an insurance policy or offers a pension plan.

Underwriters assess proposals and determine terms and costs of an insurance policy before deciding whether to insure a customer.

The underwriter may decide to pass on a part of the risk to another insurer. This is known as reinsurance. Reinsurance is an insurance bought by the insurers.

Claims staff work with people to settle claims against their policies. They review the policy details, and obtain evidence before paying a claim.

Loss assessors or surveyors investigate claims for losses caused by burglaries, thefts, fires and car accidents, etc. They work out the loss covered by an insurance policy and report the details and circumstances to the insurer.

Insurance agents work on behalf of insurance companies. They are sales professionals who collect premiums and meet sales targets on a commission basis.

Insurance Brokers are independent business people who work for themselves or for brokerage firms to find the best insurance package for their clients’ needs.

Risk Managers identify and assess their company’s risk, advising on insurance and investment strategies.

PUBLIC SECTOR INSURANCE JOB OPTIONS

The Public Sector insurance industry employs many occupational groups such as assistant administrative officers in insurance companies, insurance surveyor, risk managers, underwriters, claim adjusters, actuaries, insurance consultants, etc.

While LIC provides life insurance, the 4 independent public sector general insurance companies, namely New India Assurance, National Insurance, Oriental Insurance & United India Insurance are concerned with non-life insurance like - motor, marine, fire, health and personal accident insurance

The various posts and their specific jobs in public sector insurance companies are:

Administrative Officer and Assistant Administrative Officer

Administrative Officer (AO) and Assistant Administrative Officer (AAO) belong to the class I officer group. The job begins with the candidates joining LIC and GIC on a probation-cum-training period of 6 months. This is to provide exposure about the working of insurance sector. AAOs can choose any of the areas from Administration, Development and Accounts.

In Administration AAOs handle policy making, policy claims upto certain limit, checking clauses and details, filing official returns and statements to higher regional offices etc. The Development AAOs deal with marketing and procurement of business, promoting policies, getting contracts etc. The Accounts AAOs manage the funds including incomes and expenses of the corporation. After 3 years of working as AAOs they can be promoted to AOs. This adds on more powers and authority and they can be posted anywhere in India.

Development Officer

The Development Officer belongs to class II officer group. They are in charge of their territory for the development of the insurance policies. They handle recruitment of agents; train them for procurement of new business and servicing of the existing policies. Over a period of time Agents recruited by the Development Officers can also rise to the position of the Development Officer. Recruitment process of Development Officers is handled by the Divisional Office.

Actuaries

Actuaries help design plans and evaluate the financial risks a company takes when it sells an insurance policy or offers a pension plan. Public Sector Insurance companies hire actuaries but these jobs are few and highly paid.

PRIVATE SECTOR INSURANCE JOBS

There are as many private life insurance companies operating at present in India (www.irdaindia.org). Private insurers have designations different from those of LIC & public sector general insurance companies, yet the functions are more or less similar. The various functions in a private insurance company (common to those in the public sector) can be summed as follows:

SALES & DISTRIBUTION

Sales function is the main line of function, and at any moment there are thousands of sales professionals working in insurance companies; their profile ranging from agents/ advisors to relationship officers/ executives to sales/ relationship managers. Private insurers have coined several designations such as sales executives/financial planning executives/ relationship executives for entry level sales jobs to sales managers/ unit managers/ sales development managers/business managers etc for first level manager’s jobs in sales of insurance products. Key result areas range from achieving First year premium targets for entry level executives to recruiting and managing a team of agents and achieving key sales targets for a sales manager.

Hierarchy takes you to the branch manager, cluster manager, area manager, regional manager, zonal manager, and national sales head reporting to the CEO.

The sales manager’s role & function is similar to the development officer’s role in LIC.

The sales function is further divided according to channels of distribution. The 2 common channel funnels are:

1. The direct agency sales channel

2. The Indirect alternate channel of distribution.

Career path in the private insurance sector

Sales Career path in a typical private life insurance company

Direct Agency Sales Channel:

Agents and agency managers are a part of the direct channel that reports to the branch sales manager and is responsible for branch sales targets.

Alternate Sales Channel:

The alternate channel comprises of distributors of insurance products that operate independently from their offices & various sales points; and are normally not a part of the branch sales business targets. These channels are also referred to as third party distribution channels. TPD includes banc assurance tie-ups, corporate agents, insurance brokers, business associates, and referral arrangements with banks.

IRDA regulates the appointment and working of these intermediaries for the ensuring the safeguard of consumer’s rights and interests. The Alternate channel is one of the cost-effective growth strategies of the insurer and many insurers have tied up with banks and financial institutions to leverage the distribution strengths of the channel partners & reach out to their captive customers.

Banc assurance:

Banks find the tie-up with insurers beneficial because banks acquire a new source of revenue and earn substantial first year commissions from insurers for recommending the co-branded products to their captive clients. Many nationalized and private sector banks in India have either promoted their own insurance company or entered into corporate/ referral tie-up with insurers in the life/ general insurance sector. Bancassurance sales professionals employed with insurers have business targets to be generated through the bank’s offices and referrals. These sales professionals are referred to as relationship managers and they in turn organize and manage the entry level sales executives at the bank’s branches; whose job profile is simple: talk to walk-in customers and captive bank customers, initiate prospect’s interest in the product and close the sale. All such closed sales result in achieving premium targets for the individual and the team. All this may seem simple, however, the job requires high soft skills, coupled with a high emotional quotient level to sustain the sales pressure & remain positive on the job.

The same is true for all sales professionals in the insurance industry, with the exception of the agent/ advisor who; being his own boss, enjoys the privilege of setting his own time and sales targets. One of the most challenging functions of the sales manager is to maintain a cordial & challenging professional relationship with his team of agents on an individual and team level, since it is the agent who is the wheel of the agency business system.

Salaries in the Sales and Distribution range from 10-15k for entry level trainee/ executive sales jobs with incentives; to 20-30 k for sales manager; to 40-60k for branch sales managers. Area sales manager gets annual CTC in the range of 8-10 lakhs, while regional sales managers salaries can range from 15-30 lakhs pa; depending on the experience of the person, the employer, and the person’s perceived worth to the company.

Thus, there are huge opportunities in the sales function in any insurance company, to work independently as agents or become employees of the company and function as sales executives/ managers etc. Sales jobs constitute the majority in the insurance sector. However, the largest turnover of employees also happens in the sales department; due to sales pressures, deadlines, and irregular working hours.

ACTUARIAL

An actuary holds one of the most important positions in an insurance business. He is involved in solving wide range of financial problems related with insurance investments, financial planning and management. Graduates in maths or statistics are suited for this kind of a job because the work is based on mathematical and statistical skills. In the coming times it will definitely make one of the highly paid career options in the insurance sector. Entry level salary is expected to be somewhere around Rs. 10 lakh p.a.

The Actuary and his Role

An actuary is always linked, by general impressions, with insurance and his role to the job of asset liability valuation of insurers. As opined by the Morris committee of the H.M. Treasury, London, and quoted above, an actuary’s role, in fact, extends to the whole gamut of the financial systems of any country, including the effects that the global communities make on them. His job is managing risk for profit of any firm, of any size. Product Designing, Product Pricing, Customer Value Management, Risk Management and Capital Management are the five key elements in the alchemy of an actuary – be it insurance, banking, fund management, any financial or risk-based organization of private or government entities.

While most of the developed countries are engaging the so-important actuarial services to their economic benefits, countries like India are yet to gear up their ‘economic benefits’ to the actuarial advices. The reasons are many and the most important one being the dearth of such services. There are not many amongst the bright and capable graduates and post-graduates from the universities to take up the qualifying examinations to become actuaries, for the plausible reason that there are no regular and standard institutions offering the class-room courses for these examinations.

UNDERWRITING

The life and non-life insurance segments require professional underwriters. Underwriters assess the risk in the business and take care of risk management. Normally foreign insurers prefer people with medical or life science background for this job and the same is likely to happen here. Entry level salary can be expected to be around 6 lakh p.a.

MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION

Marketing insurance product is not easy at all. It is like marketing any other financial product, which requires a push. Marketing therefore would require specialization. Degree holders from reputed institutes and those with experience in marketing and finance fields can anticipate bright opportunities in the insurance sector. Even the role of agents will witness a radical change; they will moreover serve as financial consultants, who will offer a complete range of insurance solutions.

OPERATIONS

The insurance sector will be requiring Infotech professionals for elaborate databases, network solutions and for in house packages etc. Like other sectors, demand for database and software professionals is expected to grow in the insurance sector as well.

INVESTMENT

Like banks and mutual funds, investment professionals will be required in insurance sector as well. Professionals with degree in finance from reputed institutes as well as experienced professionals from banks and mutual funds have promising career options to look forward to.

Important Links

Insurance Jobs in India

PNB METLIFE

http://www.pnbmetlife.com/MetLifeCareers_Landing.aspx

United India General Insurance

http://uiic.co.in/careers/recruitment

Naukri Portal Insurance Jobs

http://jobsearch.naukri.com/insurance-jobs

MAX Life Insurance

http://www.maxlifeinsurance.com/careers/careers.aspx

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)

http://www.licindia.in/careers.htm