Remote Underwriting

Remote Working – ResumeBear Blog Post

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I found this fascinating quote today from a post highlighting a survey done by Microsoft:

A growing interest in remote working has been spurred in part by rising energy costs, environmental concerns and the recent economic crisis. Remote working is widely understood to provide companies with access to a larger talent pool, improve productivity, and lower overhead for items such as workstation space, common office space, insurance, utilities, maintenance and parking. However, today’s survey results suggest business leaders need to do more to encourage adoption to realize these benefits.ResumeBear Blog, Mar 2009

You should read the whole article.

OKC is on the list of best midsize cities for remote workers.

Remote Underwriting Jobs – Try Job.com

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You are looking for a job and hopefully will find that dream position where you can work from home.  In my research I’ve discovered that remote underwriting jobs are rarely advertised as such.  Remote jobs are out there but you have to search them out.  I’ve added a link to http://www.job.com for your searching pleasure.  Try this little experiment:

  • Select insurance as your category
  • All locations
  • Add “remote underwriter” as optional keywords, and
  • Search using any of these words, all words, and exact phrase.

You get nothing.  Now try your search this way:

  • Select insurance as your category
  • All locations
  • Add “telecommute yes”
  • Search using exact phrase

You get hits.  When I did this search I got 23 hits plus 2 from the web.  This is also a good example of how different companies use different job websites for their postings.  Interestingly, all 23 jobs are from the same employer.

Another Job Search Engine for Remote, Virtual, Telecommute Underwriting

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I’ve added a link to The Job Spider search engine. During the course of my research I’ve noticed this engine finds positions not advertised elsewhere. I’m not saying this is a better search engine, just different. Remember to use different key words when searching for positions. For example, the words remote, virtual, and telecommute may pick up different postings as any of these words are often used to describe those of us who toil from outside of office walls. If you go to this website, watch for the posting dates of the positions. Some are pretty old, and therefore useless. But definitely check out the Scam Awareness page. This is well worth reading.

Remote Underwriting Jobs – Look Beyond

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Search Jobs, Resumes, Recruiting & Career Site – Beyond.com

There are a a ton of job sites on the internet and it should come as no surprise that companies must pick and choose where to place their ads.  For the job seeker, the problem is finding the website that hopefully lists the type of position you’re looking for.  I prefer employment sites that utilize meta-search engines.  If you’re searching for that ultimate remote underwriting job (or any new position) I suggest trying Beyond.com.  I have been playing around with this website and so far, the results are impressive.  Beyond claims to have search capabilities for over 15,000 niche employment sites.

Feel free to leave a comment.  Let me know if this type of post is useful or not.

I’ve added a link on my sidebar.

Remote Underwriting with Turkeys

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Remote underwriting turkeys

Remote underwriting turkeys

This post marks the beginning of a periodic series covering remote underwriting management issues. Based upon search engine traffic there seems to be a high level of interest on this topic, hence a new periodic series.  Personally I have experience in several aspects of the remote underwriting experience.  I have managed remotes.  I was a project manager for the design and implementation of a paperless workflow system from the technology side.  I’ve functioned as an Interim Chief Underwriter managing remotes.  I have worked remotely for numerous companies (not all at the same time).

I am remote.

Again, thanks for visiting.  Please leave a comment or two.

(the picture was taken in my brother’s backyard while working remotely from Marlborough, MA)

Remote Underwriting Jobs – OK…I Get It

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Revised October 16, 2010

The first version of the post was written nearly two years ago.  A lot has changed since then.  One of the more interesting developments for my business is the continued development of the Google search algorithm.  I just recently discovered what happens when you search on Google for “remote underwriting jobs”.

This post is on page one of the search results.  You’re probably looking for a remote life underwriting job and you got this page.   I figured I better revise this post for clarity.  So here we go…

Underwriting Solutions LLC is a consulting company based in Edmond, OK.  We do provide outsourced life underwriting services and have multiple technology partners to help your company improve efficiency, effectiveness, and time to issue all while lowering costs.  At the present time my company has no opportunities for remote underwriting work. Due to the current economic environment and the continually evolving life underwriting landscape most of my activities have been strategically focused elsewhere.

I do have friends in several companies that provide outsourced underwriting support who may have openings.  Feel free to email me with your contact information.  Also do explore this site for posts on other companies in the hiring mode as I try to pass along information on open positions as I come across them.  I also have some links to job boards on my home page.

Best of luck in finding what you’re looking for.  But if you’re in management and trying to figure out how to do remote underwriting from the technology and management perspectives, call me.  I’d love to chat about APS medical summaries, structured XML databases, and our flexible hybrid fixed/variable underwriting model.   I have a mortgage, one kid in college, one kid in medical school, health insurance premiums and a small fleet of cars to support.  Call me.

Remote Underwriting – More Tech Advice

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Remember the saga of my crashed computer?  When I got the machine back it would not boot up so I took it back to the repair shop.  I got my machine back from the shop the following Monday or Tuesday. My local geek told me the PC booted up just fine at their shop. They tested everything again and found nothing that could have caused the problems I was having.

“It has to be one of your peripherals that is causing the problem. Reconnect each and every device, one by one until you find the device that’s causing the problem.”

Well OK then. But since I had work to do I left this for a weekend project.

Two nights ago I finally reconnected the final two pieces of equipment and discovered my machine would not boot up. Eying my external back up drive with great suspicion, I disconnected it and powered down. Guess what? My PC now works but you can forgeddabout starting the computer with the external drive attached. It’s not gonna happen.

So at the end of the day I had two different things crashing my computer. The first was diagnosed by me and fixed off site. Seems the Spybot Search and Destroy was preventing my newly installed Webroot virus program from starting up. Disabling the software from executing at Windows start up solved that. But the moral of this story is the fact that my local geek diagnosed my second problem but couldn’t fix it. They don’t make house calls. I ended up solving and fixing the second problem myself.

Here is the take home message:

My computer was down for a total of two calendar weeks. There is more to managing remote underwriters than meets the eye. What are your company’s plans and procedures to resolve remote technology issues?

Yeah…I thought so.

Remote Underwriting – More Tech Notes

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Last week was a heckuva week.  After several emails pitching me to upgrade my spyware protection service I relented under the mounting pressure.  Besides, it was only $5.  So I downloaded my anti-virus upgrade, ran the install program and promptly crashed my computer.  Ironic, eh?  The following morning, hoping that a good night’s rest would cure my computer’s refusal to boot up, I switched on the power.

Nothing.

It was at that moment I realized it wasn’t going to be a good day.

My mind started racing backwards…what did I do?

  • Downloaded and installed anti-virus software
  • Installed a new 10/100 ethernet switch
  • Installed a new uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
  • Installed and configured a new video card
  • Installation and configured dual monitors

After determining my internal power supply and hard drive were OK it had to be a software conflict.   Rather than spend too many hours trying to figure out what the conflict was I took my machine to the local shop for repairs.  Rather than work off a small notebook computer I decided to configure a hot spare to work from ( I just happened to have an old Windows machine in the house).  So ultimately my solution to my computer crash was to configure and hook up another computer.

Can your remote underwriters do this?  If your company uses remotes and you are the manager responsible for their production, what does your remote technology support plan look like?  Do you have a remote tech support plan? Does your IT area have a remote support plan?

I am still working off my hot spare five days after my initial crash.  When I picked up my main box, disconnected the spare, reconnected my main, and powered up it still didn’t boot up.  I took it back to the shop and I await its return.

But I can work.

Remote Underwriting – Better Baked Thoughts

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“Oooh, that’s scary.”

Owner of Siam Smile, a Thai restaurant in downtown Edmond, OK as I was liberally sprinkling red hot chilies over my Pad Thai.

While enjoying a plate of Pad Thai at a local restaurant it dawned on me that the debate about remote underwriting has become nothing more than an academic tussle.  On one side of the debate, there are insurance companies that totally embrace remote underwriting.  On the other side there are companies with endless reasons who do not care for the concept of remote underwriting.  But in the end, the debate is purely academic at this time.  I got a phone call the other week that convinced me of this.

A very large multi-national company placed a recruiting call to me and I had a very nice conversation with the head of their HR.  This particular company has over 100 underwriters and over 40 are remote.  This got me thinking about other companies who have embraced remote underwriters.  These firms are all big names with big budgets, good technology, and a vision for the future.

The future is here and we all better get used to it.  Scary or not.