Navigating the Complexities of Underwriting Recruitment

Recently, I was sitting down with the CEO of a mid-sized insurance company, talking about the firm’s talent needs, and he said to me, “We’re always on the lookout for good underwriters. We’ll hire whenever we find the right person.”

What stuck with me was the way he said it, like good underwriters are so rare that you hire first and figure the rest out later. And he’s right. Against the industry’s ongoing talent crunch, underwriters have become a critical hiring priority, and one of the most difficult given the specialty nature of the role.

As a Partner at Hanover, I’ve made it my craft to find those rare underwriting specialists that keep businesses thriving, so here’s everything you need to know.

The specialty nature of underwriting roles

Underwriting roles may carry the same title, but they’re not all built the same. Each underwriter specializes in a particular niche, and every role demands a unique combination of product expertise, market approach and channel experience, so there’s no template recruitment solution.

In my own experience working across P&C underwriting searches, I’ve encountered a wide range of hiring needs that require very different things:

• Sales-oriented, production underwriting requires a candidate who has strong broker relationships and the willingness to be out in the market. These underwriters also need a network in a specific region and a bit of a commercial instinct, so you’re looking for talent who can read the room and hold their own in front of agents.
• Other roles lean entirely the other way. Technical desk underwriting positions, for example, call for deep and specific product expertise in niche lines like Commercial Auto, Inland Marine, Marine Cargo, or D&O. These are backroom specialists with a sharper handle on the underwriting detail. They’re not expected to be out at events or managing broker portfolios; they’re there to assess risk and price it properly.
• Account size also changes the shape of the search. Some underwriters are used to working with high-volume, small commercial business accounts, like an SME environment that prioritizes volume and efficiency. Others are more suited to middle market or large account work, handling layered placements or complex, multinational programs. These experiences aren’t interchangeable.
• Then there are distinctions around the operating environment. Some underwriting roles require carrier-side experience, i.e. people who know the structure, the internal sign-offs, the appetite frameworks, and so on. But if you need someone who can operate in a faster-moving, less structured environment, where decisions are made with more autonomy, then the best candidates will be those with MGA or Program experience. They tend to be more entrepreneurial, used to moving quickly, and comfortable navigating delegated authority models and non-standard workflows.
• Admitted and non-admitted backgrounds matter, too. There’s a big difference between someone used to the flexibility of E&S insurance and someone who’s spent years in the structured environment of a residual market program. A candidate who’s only worked in the non-admitted space might not be ready for the regulatory complexity of an admitted carrier role. Equally, someone from an admitted background might be uncomfortable with the pace, flexibility and lack of guardrails that define non-admitted underwriting roles.

Successful underwriting recruitment starts with understanding those kinds of nuances.

Why is it so difficult to find underwriting talent?

The speciality nature of underwriting roles means there is a limited supply of talent, and there are several compounding factors that make reaching them even more challenging:

• Time and resources: Without dedicated talent acquisition teams, hiring underwriters becomes an opportunistic endeavor for most mid-sized insurance firms. This risks the vacancy sitting open indefinitely, or firms hiring too eagerly and ending up with someone who’s misaligned.
• Competitive pressure: Unemployment in insurance is 2% – half the national average – so most underwriters are gainfully employed and not actively looking. When a skilled underwriter does enter the job market, companies pounce. Move too slowly, or come in with an unappealing offer, and the candidate is gone.
• Assessing fit: When I’m recruiting, I pay attention to how a candidate’s decision-making style and communication will mesh with the client’s culture. Firms hiring on their own find it tough to gauge these qualitative aspects from a résumé or short interview.

Hanover’s approach to underwriting recruitment

Having a specialized search partner makes an important difference when hiring underwriters. Partner is the operative word there. I work as an extension of my client’s team. For instance, one insurer came to us after struggling to fill a senior underwriter role. We stepped in and:

• Helped them refine the role’s profile, so that the search stayed laser-focused on the talent that would genuinely drive their business.
• Leveraged our market insight to track where the talent was moving and what their ideal underwriters were looking for, then translating those insights into a competitive value proposition that attracted sought-after candidates.
• Tapped our network, reaching out discreetly to underwriters we knew in that specialty. Because we maintain ongoing dialogues with underwriters (even when they’re not actively job hunting), we could quickly identify and engage top talent before they were approached by anyone else.

Within a few weeks, we presented a short list of high-caliber candidates to our client, one of whom they hired. Our consultative approach made the biggest impact. We take the time to understand the guts of your business – how the underwriting team operates, what the portfolio looks like, where the risk appetite is heading, and what kind of mindset the team needs. We’re embedded in that process from day one, bringing market data, compensation insight, and talent mapping to shape the search strategy.

That level of involvement matters in underwriting because these aren’t interchangeable hires. You’re bringing in someone who will be making judgment calls that directly affect loss ratios, broker relationships, and ultimately, the bottom line. The process of hiring that person must be entrusted to someone who lives and breathes the industry, and looks beyond the obvious.

Delivering value beyond the hire

One thing I always stress is the goal isn’t just to fill an open position – it’s to add value to the business. Underwriters play a pivotal role in an insurer’s success. They can boost an entire book of business, enhance risk management, even spur innovation in new product areas. I get genuinely excited when we find a candidate who can do all that and fit the team culture.

There’s nothing quite as fulfilling as that phone call where the client says, “Thank you, this hire is a game-changer for us.” That, right there, is why I love what I do, and why Hanover continues to invest in being the go-to partner for underwriting recruitment.

I’ve spent years building relationships in the underwriting community, particularly within P&C, so I know where to look when a client comes to us with a specific search, and I have the rapport to engage those candidates. If you’re currently looking for exceptional underwriters, I’d be happy to speak with you. Please reach out to me directly and we’ll arrange time for a chat.