Underwriter or Claims?

[Seventyx70]

I'd appreciate some input from you guys seeing as this place seems to be an incredible wealth of insurance industry knowledge.

I have two opportunities available to me: one in Allstate claims (auto) and another in State Farm underwriting (life). The location and salaries at this point are non factors, both are entry level. Based on the positions and companies, what would you recommend as the better route? is one company or career route significantly better than another?

I've tried to do some research on my own, but I was hoping to get some input from those within the industry as well. I greatly appreciate any and all help that you can offer. Thank you.

 

[DHK]

Most of us are agents and haven't been "HQ employees"... ever.

That being said, for me personally, I think there would be less stress on life underwriting than in auto claims. I'd rather read about people's illnesses and why they are buying life insurance, than how they suffered in an auto wreck and how much to authorize for a claim.

If you are familiar with Stephen R. Covey's time management quadrant... buying life insurance is a "Quadrant II" (Important but not urgent) rather than auto claims being a "Quadrant I" (Urgent AND important). That doesn't mean that you won't have stress and deadlines for turning around decisions. However, working to help the company ascertain the risk for the approval of a policy sounds more fulfilling than dealing with auto claim paperwork.

As far as which company... we're not comparing agency opportunities. These are jobs... so it really doesn't matter.

 

[xrac]

I think SF is a better company than Allstate. The worst treatment I have ever received from an insurance adjuster was Allsnakes.

 

[JenkinsAgency]

SF is a lot better than Allstate, in almost every possible way.

I have no experience with working the operations side of either company (only have agent experience), but from all of my interactions with both, Allstate is a lot closer to Geico and Progressive than SF. And, that's definitely not a good thing, IMO.

 

[UW Guy]

While underwriting can have its bad days you tend to have WAY fewer days spent having people constantly hounding you for what they perceive to be their money. Also with most carriers, underwriting tends to be a bit higher on the food chain. Unless you're looking to go further into claims then all means....

If you care learn more about the underwriting gig feel free to private message me.

 

[dainsuranceboy]

My personal opinion is underwriting, but would suggest going more into P&C commercial for it.

The underwriting position has a lot more transferable skills into other jobs (think risk manager, risk analyst, risk consultant, insurance positions in F500 corporations). Also the salary is better from the start and in the top end. Lots more corporate-y up the ladder type job.

Claims is cool and a very interesting job, but its' easy to get pinned in a 'cog' in a machine roles rather than actually getting authority and autonomy and various interesting experiences.

 

[insurance1822]

Underwriting over Claims. In claims you'll be dealing w/ morons ALL DAY.

Allstate is a rotten despicable company based off how they treat their agency force & I wouldn't touch them w/ a 10 ft pole

 

[indienoise]

+1 UW over claims all day, every day.

 

[Indiana_Adam]

You will get your butt handed to you much more with Allstate auto claims. Allstate, at least here, doesn't pay the full labor rate. So the insured eats the additional cost of labor or the shop does. Either way, you catch hell for it.

As the other guys said, you will probably have more opportunity within under writing. Then again, some agents treat their UWs like garbage, but probably pay for it in the long run with more trouble getting things pushed through.

 

[AlTheGud1sRtakn]

My gut would say underwriting over claims. Glassdoor always has some useful insights, but keep in mind the people who bother to go online and write reviews are generally the ones who have something to complain about, not the ones who are happy. Because of that the average rating and salary are generally lower than the actual norm. You can click around more from the base link to reviews and whatnot.

Allstate Claims Adjuster Salary | Glassdoor

State Farm Underwriter Salary | Glassdoor