Life Underwriter

Liverpool Victoria; Exeter, Bournemouth, Hitchin; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A well-established insurance provider is seeking an organized and self-motivated underwriter to efficiently underwrite new business applications for life, critical illness, and income protection insurance. This permanent role offers a flexible working model, allowing you to work from home or various offices. Candidates should possess strong communication and administration skills, along with a background in underwriting. Benefits include a competitive salary, annual bonus, and various insurance perks, as well as opportunities for growth and development.

Benefits

26 days' holiday

Annual bonus scheme

Flexible benefits

Competitive pension scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Discounts on life products

Qualifications

• Experience in underwriting life, critical illness, or income protection insurance.
• Ability to make decisions in a fast-paced environment within regulations.
• Experience in medical underwriting is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Underwrite new business applications for insurance products.
• Make customer-focused decisions supported by relevant information.
• Build relationships with customers and intermediaries.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Robust administration skills

Excellent numeracy and literacy skills

Proficient in Microsoft Office

Education

CII exams in Life & Disability underwriting

Job description

We have a fantastic opportunity for an organised, self‑motivated underwriter to join our established team at LV.

Within this fundamental role, you’ll efficiently underwrite new business applications for life, critical illness and income protection insurance on appropriate terms in relation to the risk. The product range within the department consists of Life, Critical Illness and Income Protection insurance, so previous experience of underwriting at least one of these products is essential.

You will be fully supported by our existing team and make a positive impact within the business and to our valued customers.

This role is offered on a permanent basis, with fantastic opportunities for growth and development.

You’ll be required to attend some training sessions at our Exeter office, but we offer a highly flexible working model in which you may work predominately from home, the Exeter office, or our Bournemouth or Hitchin offices.

Key Responsibilities

• Making important decisions in an efficient, customer‑focused way, utilising all relevant information to reach your decision.
• Providing fair and balanced information surrounding your decision, including concise and robust justifications of why decisions have been reached.
• Referring cases to third parties, including reassurers, in an accurate and clear manner.
• Utilising your excellent customer service skills to build and maintain relationships with customers and intermediaries.
• Contributing your ideas for process improvement to support the department and meet KPI’s.
• Identifying and contributing suggestions on improving the customer journey.
• Obtaining ongoing CPD by self‑education, attending training seminars, industry events and providing feedback to colleagues and other business areas as required.
• Providing coaching and support to colleagues over time, where required.
• Becoming involved in projects and/or testing.
• Assessing new business applications and make underwriting decisions within risk appetite.

About You

Our ideal candidate will…

• Demonstrate excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Be able to work in a fast‑paced, changing environment while completing work to a high standard within an agreed timeframe.
• Possess robust administration skills, with the ability to prioritise, plan and organise your workload to meet customer needs.
• Take ownership and work independently on complex cases, while also helping your team meet key targets.
• Competently make pragmatic decisions and judgements on your cases in line with regulatory requirements and LV= values.
• Demonstrate excellent numeracy and literacy skills, with a keen eye for detail (spotting errors, conflicting information or concerns is key within the role).
• Competently use Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Outlook).
• Be experienced in working on initial or full medical underwriting.
• Have a good level of knowledge on Protection products we offer at LV=.
• Have obtained CII exams in Life & Disability underwriting or similar (desirable but not essential for the role).

This role is a Band B in the LV= salary structure.

At LV= Life and Pensions, you’ll go above and beyond to do the right thing for our customers. We’ll reward your hard work with an attractive, competitive salary and benefits package, which includes:

• 26 days’ holiday – increasing after two years of service to 28 days
• The opportunity to buy or sell up to five days of holiday
• An annual bonus scheme based on company and personal performance
• Flexible benefits, including a cycle to work scheme, personal accident insurance, critical illness cover, private medical insurance, and dental insurance
• Competitive pension scheme – LV= Life and Pensions will double‑match the amount you pay, up to 14% (subject to National Minimum Wage requirements)
• Group Life Assurance of four times your basic pay to your dependents (you’ll have the option to increase this to 8× cover)
• Group Income Protection, if you enrol into the pension scheme and reach 5 years of service
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service for support when you need it
• Access to a virtual GP service
• Shared parental leave
• Up to 20% discount on our life products for you and your immediate family.

About Us

Here at LV= Life and Pensions we love to hear from great people, so don’t forget to connect with us on social media.

We’re proudly an equal‑opportunity employer and we highly value diversity and inclusivity.

We don’t discriminate on race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We’re also open to conversations about flexible working as part of your application – if it’s right for our customers, our business and for you, then we’ll do everything we can to make it happen.

Please note that we are unable to offer Skilled Worker Visa Sponsorship for this role. Therefore, you must ensure that you are eligible to work in the UK without our sponsorship for your application to be considered.