Imagine your world without insurance

Empty shelves at local stores, no airplane travel for spring break, computer factories cold and dark, doctors refusing to treat you-- most every product or service you use would not be available without insurance. Without insurance there would be no risk taking. And without any risk taking, no businesses and no innovation. Insurance gives us the peace of mind and security we need to operate.

Insurance is a trillion dollar business (Plunkett Research, Ltd, January 2010) which employs more than 2 million people (Business Insurance, February 2009) in the United States alone. As the population ages and wealth grows, the demand for insurance professionals is increasing dramatically. This is great news for you if you're thinking of going in to insurance. Jobs in insurance involve helping individuals and businesses manage risk to protect themselves from catastrophic losses and to anticipate potential problems. Work in this area is not only personally rewarding, but can be financially rewarding as well.

Appalachian offers a degree in Risk Management and Insurance which will prepare you to pursue many different careers in this industry.

Building Insurance Talent

Are you searching for a major or perhaps not sure if you have selected the major that best suits you? If so, you may want to participate in the Building Insurance Talent (BIT) program this semester.

Program Goals

• To establish relationships between freshman/sophomore minority students and industry professionals, RMI faculty, career counselors and peers currently majoring in RMI.
• To provide these students with a real life view of the exciting careers available to them within the risk management and insurance industry.
• To encourage students to consider a career in the industry.

Program Activities

• Professional Panels: Industry professionals provide an informal view of specific areas of the industry in a question/answer format.
• Career Shadowing: Students will spend a day shadowing an insurance professional on site to learn about specific career paths.
• Career Fair: Approximately 60 insurance brokers, agents and insurance companies will provide information to help student better understand the opportunities available to students majoring in RMI.
• Tailgate: Alumni will gather for tailgate providing vast networking opportunities.
• Industry Speakers: Formal presentation on areas of interest within the industry.
• Conference and Meeting Travel: Selected student pairs will travel to industry conferences and meetings.
• Meet the Faculty: Dinner with the RMI faculty to provide an academic perspective on the major.
• Resume consulting: One-on-one professional resume consulting.

Eligibility Requirements

• Have completed 12 or more semester hours
• GPA of 3.0 or higher
• Have a genuine interest in learning more about the insurance and risk management major and industry.

To get involved please contact call the Brantley Center, 828-262-6179.

Careers

Insurance is everywhere and offers careers in just about every area of interest.

If you have a passion for private investigating or exploring the underlying causes of “unfortunate incidents,” a career in claims may be of interest to you:

The role of an insurance claims broker is to deal with all aspects of insurance claims on behalf of clients. A claim usually happens after events such as fire, flood, theft, accident or illness. If a client is insured, they receive compensation from the insurance company. The insurance claims broker deals with the whole process from first notice to final payment. This can be a long and complex negotiation, in order to decide who is responsible to pay and how much will be paid.

If you are all about planning now to avoid problems later, put those skills to use in risk management or loss prevention:

As a loss control specialist your job would be to help keep accident and losses to a minimum. You would visit factories, shop floors and businesses to identify potential hazards and help to eliminate them. In the health insurance area you might work with an organization to promote preventive health care in the workplace or to limit exposure to certain types of ailments.

A risk manager is responsible for identifying risks and determining the most effective ways to deal with the risks in order to protect a company against accidental losses. Losses could result from events such as product or professional services liability, property damage, or employee dishonesty. Risk management personnel develop, implement and enforce rules and procedures designed to mitigate these risks.

If you hate the idea of having a job where you’ll be stuck behind a desk and long to set your own schedule away from an office, become an adjuster or agent/broker:

Adjusters are specialists who investigate complex claims on behalf of insurance companies and help policyholders restore their property to full working order. They investigate at the scene of an incident, establish the causes of the 'loss' (damage or destruction of property) and whether it is covered by the insurance policy. They then write reports for the insurer, assessing the validity of the claim and recommending appropriate payment.

Agents/brokers are primarily responsible for selling and/or placing insurance. Agents/brokers act as the go-between for customers and insurance companies. Agents/brokers also may provide the customer with additional services such as helping customers identify the risks they face and how best to deal with that risk. They play a very important role in the insurance industry because they are the first contact that most customers have with the industry when applying for insurance as well as when they have a claim.

If you love to manipulate numbers, you can follow your bliss to a career in underwriting:

Insurance underwriters use historical numerical data to decide if applications for insurance coverage should be accepted and if so, what the terms of that acceptance are. They assess a risk according to the likelihood of a claim being made by evaluating a number of factors and asking for detailed information from prospective clients.

Insurance Symposiums

Please contact the Brantley Center at 828-262-6950 if you wish to connect with the RMI program at Appalachian State University through a specific symposium topic.