Risk Management
- Entry requirements
- What you might do
- Training and professional qualifications
- Rewards
- Prospects
- Useful links
General insurance companies, brokers and other specialist firms employ professionals to help them assess the potential financial risks posed by offering insurance cover for particular items or properties. Risk surveyors provide underwriters - who assess risks, and set the terms and prices of insurance policies - with information on levels of risk associated with each client, and the ways in which those risks could be minimised.
Roles include risk surveyors, risk control surveyors, risk analysts or risk advisers, some of whom specialise in specific areas such as fire, health and safety, theft or public liability.
Entry requirements
Some brokers recruit new entrants as trainee risk analysts, but few companies take on new graduates as risk surveyors.
Although a degree is not required for entry into the profession, most risk surveyors are graduates, and any degree is acceptable. Those who have studied risk management, economics, business studies, law, management, insurance or engineering subjects - a pre-requisite for specialist engineering insurance surveying �- may succeed in gaining a training post.
Previous experience in the insurance industry is usually necessary, often in the field of underwriting, and some companies ask for as much as five years' underwriting experience.
Communication skills are key and you also need to be commercially aware, diplomatic and confident enough to deal with a wide range of people, from site workers to managing directors.
What you might do
As a risk professional, you are likely to spend much of your time visiting clients and conducting detailed surveys of sites to be insured. You'll also be responsible for carrying out research to assess and evaluate risk; writing reports for underwriters; staying abreast of legislative developments; advising clients and liaising with insurance underwriters and brokers. You may need to collect evidence to support your assessments and also to make recommendations for improvements that will reduce risks - for example to add fire exits, burglar alarms or CCTV cameras etc.
Training and professional qualifications
This area of work often attracts mature entrants, as those with commercial and/or insurance industry experience are preferred.
Trainee surveyors are expected to qualify as Associates of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). In practice, many entrants will have already achieved this in a previous role.
CII qualifications include Certificate (Cert CII), Diploma (Dip CII) and Advanced Diploma (ACII) and are available as modules to enable you to study the most relevant areas at your own pace.
Many surveyors choose to study for National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) qualifications, a common requirement for health and safety specialists. Others take qualifications of the Institute of Risk Management (IRM).
Training also takes place on the job and may be supported by in-house training programmes, distance learning and personal mentoring.
Rewards
Although entrance at graduate level is unusual, a typical starting salary for a new entrant is likely to be in the region of �21,000. Fully competent surveyors with two to three years' experience command �26,000 - �35,000 with added benefits, while those with extensive experience will receive from �40,000 - �65,000, or �60,000 - �100,000 in London. Further benefits often include the provision of a car and the opportunity to work from home.
Prospects
Individual employer companies usually define progression within their own organisation, from trainee roles to senior surveyor positions, heads of department or senior management roles, where the work is likely to be more administrative and strategic.
As you progress, you may choose to concentrate in a specialist technical field, moving into risk assessment in a particular industry or sector.
Useful links
The Association of Insurance and Risk Managers (AIRMIC)
AIRMIC Secretariat, Lloyds Avenue House, 6 Lloyds Avenue, London EC3N 3AX
Tel: 020 7480 7610
www.airmic.com
Chartered Insurance Institute (CII)
42-48 High Road, South Woodford, London E18 2JP
Tel: 020 8989 8464
www.cii.co.uk/
Institute of Risk Management (IRM)
Lloyds Avenue House, 6 Lloyds Avenue, London EC3N 3AX
Tel: 020 7709 9808
www.theirm.org/
Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH)
Membership Department, The Grange, Highfield Drive, Wigston, Leicester LE18 1NN
Tel: 0116 257 3100
www.iosh.co.uk
National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH)
Dominus Way, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1QW
Tel: 0116 263 4700
www.nebosh.org.uk
