Nicole Fischman

Tell me about your career journey—how did you find your way into underwriting?

I’ve been with Philly Insurance since right out of college, and I’ll actually be celebrating twenty-three years here this summer. I was recruited by the Regional Vice President at the time—he found my profile on a recruiting website and invited me in for an interview, and that’s how I got started as an administrative assistant.

I was in that role for two years before I had the exciting opportunity to move into an Account Executive position, managing the day-to-day of our book of business. I loved the work and eventually grew into a Senior Account Executive role.

I stayed in that department for fifteen years until a new opportunity came up in our Excess and Surplus lines division. It felt like the right next step, so I made the move. I started as an Account Executive, became an Assistant Underwriter, and now I’m a Senior Specialty Underwriter on the team.

What does a typical day look like for you? And what’s the most rewarding part of your job?

This definitely isn’t a Groundhog Day kind of job. In the Excess Casualty division, we handle several products that focus on high-risk classes of business, like contracting, manufacturing, hospitality, and some real estate. So every day brings something different.

We get a high volume of submissions, so a big part of my day is working closely with our assistant underwriters to manage the workflow. We run reports multiple times a day to make sure we’re staying on top of everything coming through the clearance system. I’m also very forward-facing, so I spend a lot of time speaking with clients, managing relationships and expectations, and of course, quoting and hopefully binding the business. That’s always the goal.

What I love most about my job is getting to talk to so many different people every day. I’ve learned a lot about people over the years, probably more in this role than in any of my previous ones.

What I love most about my job is getting to talk to so many different people every day. I’ve learned a lot about people over the years—probably more in this role than in any of my previous ones. I’m super outgoing, so meeting new people and building relationships really fits my personality. That’s a big part of why I enjoy working on this team so much.

You’ve been with Philadelphia Insurance for about 20 years—that’s amazing! What’s one big change you’ve seen in the Excess Casualty space over that time?

I haven’t always been in Excess Casualty—I've been in this department for about eight years now. But I'd say the biggest change I’ve seen so far is the number of players in the space.

I'd say the biggest change I’ve seen so far is the number of players in the space.

Back during the COVID days, we were in a hard market. Fast forward a few years, and now things have softened a bit, and there’s a lot more competition. So we’ve had to really sharpen our pencils and come to the table with our best numbers. It’s all about finding that balance—writing the business in a way that makes us competitive, but also not giving it away. Especially with these types of risks, it really comes down to a risk-reward calculation.

What’s one of the more unconventional or surprising risks you’ve underwritten?

I was actually thinking about this just this morning. One of the more unconventional risks I’ve worked on in the past few years was for Milk Makeup—it’s a really popular cosmetics brand. But what made it interesting is that they also have a production side to their business, with film and photography studios.

We had the opportunity to write the lessor’s risk on some of those properties. So we weren’t covering the filming, photography, or any of the talent, just the buildings themselves. But it was really cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at that side of their business and see what else they’re doing beyond cosmetics.

Natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires have become more frequent in recent years. How has that shift affected your work in the Excess Casualty and E&S space?

Across the company, and in E&S more broadly, there’s definitely been a shift. E&S is known for handling the tougher risks, things with more complexity or challenging loss history, so those factors still come into play when evaluating any risk.

So, most of the changes have been happening on the Commercial Lines side, especially when it comes to underwriting risks in areas that are prone to wildfires, for example. There’s been a push to revisit underwriting guidelines and make more conscious decisions, like determining where to draw the line when it comes to property exposures or setting binding moratoriums in high-risk zones.

Even on our side, we’ve become more aware of things like exclusions—wildfire exclusions, in particular. It’s just about being more mindful going forward and adapting where needed.

The E&S market is known for handling tough-to-place risks. How do you collaborate with brokers to find the right solutions for those kinds of accounts?

I think it’s really important to have that conversation with brokers upfront. At the end of the day, this is a people business, it’s all about the relationships we have with our clients. So when they come to us with a tough risk, whether it’s the exposures or a challenging loss history, we usually get the heads-up early, and we can start figuring out the right approach.

At the end of the day, this is a people business, it’s all about the relationships we have with our clients.

It’s about keeping that line of communication open and deciding what’s not just best for us, but what’s best for them too. And sometimes, Philly isn’t the right fit for a particular account—and that’s okay. What matters is being able to have that honest conversation.

I don't wanna write a piece of business just for the sake of writing the business. It has to be the right fit for all of us.

Are there any technologies or systems that have made your day-to-day underwriting work easier?

We’re in this kind of unique position in my division where everything we do is still pretty manual. Right now, we’re actually in the process of getting a system that can handle everything we do from an Excess perspective, but we’re not there yet.

So at the moment, it’s all manual, our rating is done in an Excel spreadsheet that’s built out with a ton of formulas and dropdowns. 

But the company as a whole is definitely moving forward with technology. We actually had a meeting recently, and one of the big takeaways was that tech is going to come into play. It’s not meant to replace jobs; that’s not where we’re going. But, you know, it is about improving the process and making things easier.

We have some automated processes—like a dedicated inbox just for clearance, so when a new submission comes in, it goes there, and another team takes care of it. The company is looking at what else can be automated or improved, and I’m curious to see how it all plays out.

How do you see AI being used to underwrite risks? Is there a particular use case you’re excited about?

I’m not sure if AI will really change the actual underwriting a lot. There’s so much that goes into it, and every risk is different. They're not cookie-cutter, so I don't think you could ever fully replace underwriting. 

I do like the idea of being able to input something into a system and have it rate automatically, without having to enter so much information, right? Maybe eliminating some of the time-consuming data entry steps. That's what I'd most look forward to, especially because I'm used to doing everything manually.

We get so many submissions that it takes a minute to sit there and think about the exposure, what it could mean down the line, and what the potential losses might look like. I don’t know that AI could ever truly replace that entirepart.

What’s one book you’d recommend to someone in the industry, whether it’s about underwriting, risk, or just a great read?

One of the first books I was given when I started working here was written by our founder, James Maguire Sr. He still sits on the board today, and back then, the company was Maguire Insurance Agency before it became Philadelphia Insurance. The book is called Just Show Up Every Day, and we all got a copy for what I believe was Philly’s 50th anniversary.

The message really stuck with me: even if you don’t know everything, and let’s be honest, no one does, you should just show up every day. Show up, be ready, give your 110%. More, if you can. But show up. Because sometimes, especially in a people and relationship-driven business like ours, that’s what matters most. That you're just showing up every day. 

So, I love that book. I actually made my son read it not too long ago. I think it’s a very strong message: just show up, right? We're not all perfect. We all have personal lives outside of work and careers and everything like that. 

Looking ahead 5 to 10 years, how do you think underwriting will change?

I think it's definitely going to change – there will be aspects of our jobs that will shift because of AI. And honestly, I think AI is moving a lot faster than many of us expected. We always knew it was there. It wasn't a secret. I think we just didn't realize it was maybe going to move as fast as it is.

I can see some parts of underwriting changing. But I don't see how the relationships that are necessary for keeping the business coming will change. I think there's always going to be a need for that. 

I can see some parts of underwriting changing. But I don't see how the relationships that are necessary for keeping the business coming will change. I think there's always going to be a need for that. 

I’m also really curious to see how that plays out as younger generations come into the industry. I still think those relationships will matter just as much. Especially in roles like ours that are forward-facing.