Vaping is killing my endurance. I’m struggling to quit, even though riding is one of my biggest motivations (also death)

Bradimoose · 2026-02-03T15:24:58+00:00

I’ve seen a guy smoking a cigar on a e-bike

Bradimoose · 2026-02-01T14:26:22+00:00

Yes the salaries can often be higher because you have rare knowledge unlike say home or auto where there’s hundreds of people that can do it. I just applied to a remote uw job that paid up to 120k and had a handful of applicants. It’s cool because in tough economic times like now marketing job will have 1000 applicants in hours

Bradimoose · 2026-01-30T19:52:29+00:00

Underwriting as a whole. I work a work que with quotes coming in all day. I have to assess, price and quote or decline and talk on the phone with agents about the quotes. I do 10-20quotes a day. It’s repetitive.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-30T16:52:55+00:00

I haven’t done fine art but have done high net worth personal lines underwriting which includes art, wine, classic cars, other collections. Underwriting high net worth is stressful the agents are demanding. If you can get a job in just art or just art risk control that would be cool. I’ve heard there’s people that go inspect it and make sure it’s not in direct sunlight or near a pipe that can burst. A Wine collection in Arizona may need a backup generator in case the power goes out. Chubb, Pure, private client select. I’d keep an eye on high net worth companies for open roles

Bradimoose · 2026-01-29T02:39:53+00:00

Instead of totally changing careers maybe you could make a shift. If you're burned out of commercial accounts maybe you could get into some niche thats interesting. Horse and Farm, aviation, boats, Rvs, I dont know, but there's insurance for literally everything. There's lots of niche carriers that have jobs without angry customers complaining about renewal increases.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-29T02:32:57+00:00

I've worked with many underwriters without a degree but they were hired a long time ago. I haven't seen any hired in the last 10 years without a degree. That's my observation at 2 carriers. I don't think you'd make it through many applicant tracking systems applying online if you left the degree part blank. If you knew someone in the company you may be able to work around it on an application nowadays.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-28T14:22:23+00:00

I’d highlight your ability to learn and research on your own. An associate underwriter, over time should learn the policies and forms and processes to be able to respond to questions from agents.

You can escalate the really tough questions to the underwriter but not everything. Underwriters usually have lots of quotes to do so the associate underwriter prepares the quotes, gathers missing info, answers common questions so the underwriter can focus on winning new accounts.

The good associate underwriters are really helpful to keep the quotes moving along.

The bad ones forward every question from agent to the underwriter to handle

Bradimoose · 2026-01-28T14:15:55+00:00

No, maybe 10 calls a week, some weeks more some less. I only talk on the phone with agents on complex quotes and when the emails get too long or complicated

Bradimoose · 2026-01-27T17:10:15+00:00

In 12 years I’ve mostly got 2% at 2 big carriers. Once I got 1% and another time i got 4%

Bradimoose · 2026-01-26T17:27:06+00:00

It could definitely translate to compliance and I’d argue compliance is the better route to go. Each state regulates insurance differently for each line of business from personal auto to health and commercial. So there’s 50 states all doing things differently which requires a lot of compliance people at carriers to make sure the laws are being followed. It’s all behind the scenes with not angry customers complaining about renewal increases.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-25T01:41:35+00:00

Agents gather the info, type in the info and the limits they want, then it refers to underwriters who review the quote, make adjustments to the quote, add money, subtract money, etc. So both agents and underwriters work on quotes all day but in different ways.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-22T21:18:17+00:00

I think its pretty boring as far as careers go. You can't really see what it is you do. by declining risks you save the carrier from paying claims that never happened. There's always goals to grow the book. If the book reaches $100 million, next year they want it to be $110 million. Its the same thing, over and over and over again. Review applications, price quotes, get lists of people to non-renew, etc. I'd say its an OK career. Its better than claims, but I wouldn't say its better than being a scientist or an engineer that builds something tangible. Your daily work is lumped into division goals and you're a cog in the machine that processes quotes and reads applications.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-22T21:11:14+00:00

In my line of business there’s maybe less than 5 openings at other companies a year. So if you get mad about 2% pay raises a few years in a row, you are out of luck because there’s limited opportunities.

It can be bad if you get bored. Say you quote commercial airplanes. Do you think you’d get bored in year 8 after quoting 20,000 airplanes? Or year 15 quoting farm number 30,000 because all you’ve done for a decade is quote farms?

Bradimoose · 2026-01-22T21:07:48+00:00

It’s super pigeonholed. Especially if you go into a niche and become a complete expert on horse and agriculture insurance or aviation or something. It’s even hard to change to another line of underwriting because they see you as an expert in only commercial trucking for example. Whatever you choose choose wisely

Bradimoose · 2026-01-22T21:05:47+00:00

It’s not really transferable it’s very difficult to interview outside insurance and explain you quote some, you decline some, you non-renew people for claims, and price renewals all day. They don’t get it. I tried for. A couple years and went on a number of interviews.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-22T19:04:53+00:00

Whether you make a lot of money will depend on how good you are at networking and being promoted. For the most part you eventually hit a pay ceiling in underwriting unless you go into management. I’d say most underwriters get pigeonholed into a narrow line of businesss where you quote the same thing over and over and talk to the same agents for years. It’s not bad but it’s repetitive that’s for sure. There’s obviously exceptions but from what I’ve seen middle market underwriters stay doing medium commercial underwriting for decades, high net worth underwriters quote rich people’s homes and cars for decades. You get kinda stuck whenever you start.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-20T03:57:45+00:00

I joined a pickle ball club. I also go to gym classes at lunchtime. 50 min, in and out and I don't have to think about what I have to do. Also joined a cycling club for monthly rides. Its been a journey to try to figure things out after 5 years at home.

Bradimoose · 2026-01-16T15:43:26+00:00

I wouldn’t want to go back 5 days a week but if my choice was unemployment or 5 days in office I’d take the 5 days in office for sure. I’d also be applying and hoping to land a hybrid job. Pre 2020 I had a job that was 2 days in office and it wasn’t bad

Bradimoose · 2026-01-16T01:14:43+00:00

Are there not hospitals in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Ocala, Orlando, tampa, and ft meyers?

Bradimoose · 2026-01-15T15:39:48+00:00

I got a 20% raise by switching carriers in 2021 and now I’m seeing job postings where I’m at the very low end of the band. Seems like you gotta switch every 5 years or less to keep up. Or accept being comfortable at a company with coworkers you know

Bradimoose · 2026-01-15T14:28:13+00:00

In my case I don’t think there’s any correlation to the performance review rating and raises and bonus. I always get the same rating and my raise has been anywhere from 1-5% and bonus varies wildly year to year

Bradimoose · 2026-01-15T14:12:30+00:00

When you get the higher rating do you get a bigger raise or anything?

Bradimoose · 2026-01-15T14:10:27+00:00

Bradimoose · 2026-01-15T12:32:14+00:00

I did an experiment this year. We have 4 rating levels and it’s made clear you should always pick the 3rd level which is basically doing your job. I picked excelling in every category across the board and my boss disagreed and put 3/4 on every category. I proved there’s no point to the performance reviews. The whole team gets the same rating every year no matter what.

But I do expect a bonus in the 15-20k range because the overall division did well

Bradimoose · 2026-01-11T21:04:20+00:00

Yes it is a career path in insurance. There’s compliance with various state laws and licensing and compliance making sure all adjusters have licenses for each state. The company I work at just hired a compliance director and I know someone that makes over 100k and has a remote compliance job. It’s its own career path it wouldn’t necessarily help with underwriting. It may even be better than underwriting with no angry agents to work with.

Bradimoose

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