Zach Kramer

Tell us a bit about your career journey. How did you find your way into the insurance world?

After school, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to get into. I had a traditional business finance degree, and I knew I wanted to join a rotational program somewhere in the finance industry. Then I came across AIG, which offered a rotational program through one of its centers of excellence.

The program gave me the opportunity to learn about the foundations of insurance and how an insurance company works, including everything from claims setup, underwriting, submission intake, and even everything down to the mailroom. I became interested in underwriting during a rotation I did on the world risk side. They also had a small cyber team, so I got connected there and eventually moved up with AIG to New York, where I was part of their middle market cyber team.

How do you balance underwriting, team leadership, and broker relationships as a Lead Cyber Underwriter?

As a lead cyber underwriter at a smaller MGA, prioritizing your time and accounts is key. That goes hand in hand with the broker relationship aspect.

The more time you focus on understanding brokers' books, communication, and providing them with high service levels, the more you're able to provide visibility into your own risk appetite. This makes it easier to filter accounts and prioritize your relationships.

The more time you focus on understanding brokers' books, communication, and providing them with high service levels, the more you're able to provide visibility into your own risk appetite. This makes it easier to filter accounts and prioritize your relationships.

What’s the most challenging part of your role these days, and how do you approach it?

The biggest challenge is prioritizing tasks!

Our team is very close-knit, so we all handle many different responsibilities. We work on everything from policy forms and product improvements to daily underwriting, data, reporting, and analytics. Ultimately, the key is to identify the accounts that best fit our appetite and offer the strongest chance of winning new business.

Ultimately, the key is to identify the accounts that best fit our appetite and offer the strongest chance of winning new business.

Are there any particularities that make a cyber case more complex? Industry, business size, or something else?

Compared to traditional P&C, the type of business and the nature of operations make cyber cases more complex. A manufacturing plant has a very different cyber exposure than a telecom provider.

The biggest challenge is identifying what that exposure is and trying to provide the best coverage possible to manage their cyber exposure.

Compared to traditional P&C, the type of business and the nature of operations make cyber cases more complex. A manufacturing plant has a very different cyber exposure than a telecom provider.

What’s one misconception people have about cyber underwriting?

That cyber underwriting is simply checkbox underwriting. There's a lot more that goes into it than just reading the application. It's about understanding the nature of the business and the different cyber exposures they have.

How do you see the learning curve for someone joining your team as a new underwriter? What are some of the early challenges, and any advice you'd give them?

The most important thing is to ask questions. It's easy to feel intimidated by senior staff, especially in finance. But remember, they won't share information unless you ask for it. You need to approach them and ask the right questions.

Second, participate in calls and presentations, even if you just listen in. It's a great way to understand the lingo, how conversations work, and how negotiation works in the insurance space.

What’s your favorite part of being an underwriter?

Every day is different in terms of the accounts you get to see and the brokers you work with. It's. It's nice to be able to work with both people and technology at the same time.

Are there any tools or systems that have made your day-to-day work easier or more efficient?

Definitely, a lot of the data aggregators are helpful, especially as an underwriter, when you're getting multiple data sources.

Being able to aggregate those into one dashboard or point of view, where you can see the big picture, makes it a lot easier to understand accounts.

How do you see AI being used in underwriting? Is there a particular use case you’re mostly excited about?

I think the outside-in scans of networks and inside-out capabilities of AI are leaps and bounds ahead.

They provide a different view of a business's environment and, from an underwriting perspective, help add additional data points to the process.

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

The technical parts of underwriting will get easier. Data aggregation into one view, whether it's powered by AI or another technology, will help.

AI will make it easier for brokers to focus more on relationships, easier for underwriters to filter accounts that fit their appetite, and make data reporting and analytics more efficient.

AI will make it easier for brokers to focus more on relationships, easier for underwriters to filter accounts that fit their appetite, and make data reporting and analytics more efficient.