Prepare for Insurance Industry Tests & Interviews

Ever increasing instabilities in the world – wars, globalization, weather cataclysms, political uphevals, and people’s heightened appetite for risk – have lately contributed to the burgeoning of the Insurance Industry. For insurance, speaking in the broadest terms, is the sector that managers risks taken in these and similar instabilities. There are different types of insurance existing in the UK and other countries, but all of them take into account the risk involved in a person’s life and activities.

Insurance companies manage this risk by creating insurance contracts. These contracts work as follows: insurance companies promise to pay for an uncertain future event; insured people pay a small premium to insurers in exchange for that uncertain future protection. Having collected money from policy holders, the insurance companies invest it at low risks and reimburse it, when the person passes away or the policy changes. By investing clients’ money, insurance companies become similar to banks: insured people do not expect repayment until after a circumstantial event.

There are many factors taken into consideration, when contracts are issued. To ensure people’s lives, the insurance companies try to predict how long they will live; in other words, they manager their mortality rates. Actuaries estimate the life of a person, paying attention to such characteristics as age, sex, damaging habits, and life styles, and then analyze statistics to calculate insurance risks and premiums that the holder must pay. People whose life spans are predicted to be shorter than average pay higher premiums.

There are several types of insurance existing now in the UK. Some English companies specialize in specific areas; others offer the entire suit of insurance. Here are the four major categories of insurance:

• Life Insurance – This type gives a specified amount of money to a designated beneficiary, when the insured dies. If insured people live beyond a certain age, they receive this specified amount of money.
• Health Insurance – This category covers expenses incurred through illness of the insured.
• Accident Insurance – This type of insurance helps people after they have physically been harmed.
• Liability Insurance – This category covers different mishaps with the business, properties, or automobiles.

Health and Accident Insurance companies are the most popular. The leading UK health and accident insurance companies are Vitality, BUPA, Simply Health, AXA PPP, Benenden, Aviva, April UK, and WPA.

Property and casualty companies insure against accidents of non-physical harm such as law-suits, damage to personal assets, and car crashes.  Among the most well-known property insurers are Aviva, AIG, RSA, AXA, Divided Line Group, Zurich, and ACE.

When choosing an insurance company, you should look at many factors. The most important of them is its financial strength and its ability to keep its promises to its clients. You do not want to discover that your chosen company may not have a financial stability to meet its obligations to you. To avoid such situation, insurance companies have recently started organizing themselves differently. Instead of offering straight insurance, companies prefer now to sell customers on annuities that entitle them to a series of annual sums. This shift in the insurance industry helps insurance companies compete with investment advisory firms and mutual funds.

Insurers work in insurance companies and help policyholders manage risk efficiency. They do this by providing insurance to them and paying the claims covered by their insurance policies. Around 97% of the received claims are usually paid. Insurers help individuals, organizations, and communities recover after disasters. As large institutional investments, they help to fund various economic activities. Insurers also boost the economy of the United Kingdom, because they encourage people and organizations to make large investments. While working in insurance companies, insurers can have a role of a broker, claims manager, loss adjuster, underwriter, or actuary.

• Broker is an insurer who arranges transactions between a person who needs insurance and an insurance company for specified commissions. The broker is, therefore, the third-person facilitator between the two parties.
• Claims Manager is a professional who settles claims of an insured person who has suffered loss or damage.
• Loss Adjuster is similar to the Claims Manager. Loss Adjusters investigate complex and contentious claims on behalf of insurance companies.
• Underwriter evaluates the risk and exposure of potential clients. In other words, underwriters decide how much coverage clients should receive and how much they should pay for it. They also determine whether the clients should be insured at all.
• Actuary is a professional who assesses and manages the risks of financial investments, insurance policies, and other risky ventures.

There are many skills that an insurer should demonstrate. The most important among them are the following:

• Communication Skills – Insurers work with people, negotiating with clients or on their behalf. Excellent communication skills are, therefore, a must.
• Numeracy – Some of the roles of the insurer require excellent arithmetical skills. Those who assess risk work with computer modelling and rely on statistics. To do their job well, they should be comfortable with numbers.
• Organizational Skills – Insurers deal with may customers and thus need to know how to organize their records and files well.
• Attention to Detail – Insurer’s work involves statistics, calculations, and payments. They should be attentive to details and be able to pick up on little mistakes, preventing large error to which they can lead.
• Analytical Skills – Insuring is based on a thorough analysis of information. Insurers analyse risks that the client has and various insurance options most suitable to each client.
• Problem-Solving Skills – Working in the Insurance Industry inevitably requires solving many problems. Insurers often calculate an unpredictable risk or search for a cover for a client with unusual insurance needs.

JobTestPrep specializes in preparing job candidates for their pre-hire tests and interviews. To candidates thinking of working in the Insurance Industry, we can offer our top-notch PrepPack™ containing the Numerical Reasoning Test, the Verbal Reasoning Test, and the Abstract Reasoning Test.

By practicing with these tests, you can hone your verbal and logical abilities indispensable for an insurer. With our Numerical Reasoning Test, you will improve the accuracy and the speed of your calculations and, in so doing, will not only nail your pre-employment assessment but will also perform your tasks well, when you start working as insurer.

Because most of the employers want to hire only emotionally stable people with friendly personalities and professionalism, they ask their applicants to take also the Situational Judgement Test. Its results predict whether a job candidate will integrate well with other members of the staff and will contribute to the development of the Insurance sector. Our test simulations will help you create an attractive personality profile on your upcoming SJT.  

To help you out with job interviews, we have added to our test simulations interview materials that contain questions and answers to the most frequently asked questions and tips on how to behave most impressively in your conversation with recruiters. Included in our PrepPack™ also are detailed study guides and answer keys which will make your studies more productive and enjoyable. Purchase our exclusive materials and make insuring people your calling.