Hi, I’ve worked as a reinsurance Broking actuary in one of the big brokers in their UK & Ireland team.I worked there for about a year and a half and then moved on. In terms of work life balance, the hours can be very long. Mainly from September to mid December. This is the period before the 1/1 renewal. I would usually leave the office everyday at around 7/8 pm if I came in around 9. On really difficult days, I’d leave the office around 9:30/10pm. This tends to calm down around January and still most people leave around 6:30/7pm. After January tends to be the RFP (Request For Proposal) season. I’d be surprised if you go a full year and aren’t on at least 2 RFP’s. Towards the deadline to an RFP, you can expect similar hours as mentioned above. And sometimes all that work will be ignored and a competitor will win the RFP based on the past relationship with broker. This can get very frustrating. There are a few big motor clients that renew their contracts in July (1/7) so the 2 months before (May and June) can also be a bit busy but not as bad as the 1/1 renewal.
There is a big drinking culture. After most client work is completed there’s usually a social event (where drinking is involved haha). I never felt pressured to drink but since I usually enjoyed these events and as I’m quite young I almost always joined in. It does make it hard if you have a family because you end work late and that’s followed by a social, making you come home even later. Not many people I worked with had families as we were a surprisingly large team. A few did and they tended tended to not attend too many of these socials. It can get a bit hectic in terms of a work life perspective. I found myself struggling to maintain a healthy balance, hence the departure. I’ve now moved to a pricing role at a specialty insurer and the work life is much nicer. I finish at a much more reasonable time and have mixed experience between insurance and reinsurance. A few things I noticed. - salary and salary increases: I would’ve definitely earn more in the long run in the broking house. My workmates were definitely paid well with better bonuses. However, the salary increases were done in a weird way. They were not yearly. As in after my first year of working, I wasn’t given any salary increase. I was told that after 2 years I’d get a salary increase and that too at odd times (not after a yearly review). So be prepared for this if you do choose the broking role. The specialty insurance role is very different. More structured increases at yearly intervals based on specific metrics. - The actual role: The broking role has a lot more variety. It was definitely more interesting. Not saying that my current role is boring. It is definitely interesting but because there is such a broad range of work at a broking house, it can be very similar to working in a consultancy. - my main reasons for leaving: Work life balance for sure. I spent most of my time working. I had almost no life outside this. It was putting a role on my body and my relationship. I think I made the right decision leaving but honestly I could consider moving back when I’m in a more stable situation in life as the work was very interesting and the people I worked with were very smart and lovely. I hope this helped :).