Insurance & Financial Services Center

CAREERS

Students in the Finance Major choose one of three tracks:

·        General Finance

·        Real Estate

·        Insurance and Financial Services

The Insurance and Financial Services track is housed in the Finance Department in the College of Business and Public Administration. The track prepares undergraduate students for careers in insurance (life, health, property, and liability insurance both commercial and personal), risk management, employee benefits, financial planning, and other financial services. Students can also choose to minor in this area.

Insurance Underwriter: The job of an underwriter usually involves having to make decisions on behalf of a company as to acceptance or rejection of applications for insurance. The underwriter has to work with actuarial data to decide whether a potential client is a proper risk, given the type of insurance being requested. Additionally, the underwriter must determine what amount a client should pay for insurance, given the amount of risk involved. A college of degree is usually preferred.

Insurance Agent and Broker: An agent’s actual job function is as a salesperson for their company, soliciting clients and new prospects. Agents and brokers advise people and organizations on how to protect things they value by selling customers insurance contracts. An understanding of insurance contracts is essential to this type of occupation. A career as an agent or broker can be financially rewarding. This work is highly time-flexible, requires some background in business and is best if you enjoy interacting with people. College degrees are highly desirable, although an interested individual with only a high school education could become an agent.

Insurance Claims Adjuster: Once a claim has been submitted, it’s up to the insurance adjuster or claims investigator to determine whether the losses will be covered by the insurance company. The adjuster must evaluate the facts and determine the appropriate settlement. The actual working conditions and environments can vary tremendously. Some adjusters rush to the scenes of disasters, such as fires and hurricanes while others stay within their own office and review claims as they are reported to the company. Generally a college degree is required for this position. Since adjusters must interact with the public a great deal, good written and verbal communication skills are required.

Risk Manager: The risk manager’s job is to develop and implement a risk management plan minimizes the effects of risk on an organization. To accomplish that, a risk manager must be able to identify all potential sources of loss and develop a pre-loss strategy which will minimize the adverse impact of risk on the organization’s resources, earnings, and cash flows. A college degree is usually required. Due to vastly increased risks, organizations are implementing Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and appointing chief risk officers (CROs), which is creating a career path for risk managers to move to the highest positions in the organization. In this new view, risk is not only managed to reduce losses but is also viewed strategically as a way to increase firm value.

Personal Financial Planner: A personal financial planner creates a detailed strategy that is tailored to a client's specific situation and meets a client's specific financial goals. With the proper finance and accounting electives, the Insurance and Financial Services track provides a good foundation for becoming a personal financial planner who helps people plan for various financial issues. Financial planning focuses on  planning for investments, risk management and insurance, taxes, estates, cash flow management, education, retirement, and business succession (for business owners). The ODU Insurance and Financial Services Center has established a relationship with the Society of Financial Service Professionals (SFSP), a premier organization of those in the financial planning field. 

Employee Benefits Specialist: Employee benefits specialists develop and administer employee benefits programs, including medical, life, disability, dental and long-term care insurance; pension plans; stock options; 401(k) retirement plans; and fitness programs. These professionals must be familiar with employer tax incentives related to benefits and have a thorough understanding of laws and regulations governing employee benefits. Organizations are increasingly using the employee benefits package to attract and retain top talent.

Actuary: Actuaries study the frequency of hurricanes, fires, thefts, explosions, tornadoes and other types of similar catastrophes. They then use this information to chart out the damage caused by such occurrences and then use the data to assume financial damages. Using this information, actuaries can then calculate what the probability is of these types of events happening again. The actuary then puts together an appropriate pricing structure that should be used for various types of risks. For more information, see http://www.beanactuary.org/. A math major with a minor in the Insurance and Financial Services track is a great route to the actuarial profession.