Top 12 Insurance Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's insurance job market, a resume that shows real substance wins. Not fluff. Clear proof of skills, results, and tools you can wield. Whether you’re seasoned or just getting your feet under you, highlighting the most relevant insurance skills—paired with measurable outcomes—will lift you above the stack.

Insurance Skills

1. Underwriting
2. Risk Assessment
3. Claims Handling
4. Actuarial Analysis
5. Salesforce CRM
6. Policy Administration
7. Regulatory Compliance
8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
9. Data Analysis (e.g., Excel, SQL)
10. Financial Modeling
11. SAS Analytics
12. Tableau Visualization

1. Underwriting

Underwriting evaluates the risk of insuring a person, asset, or entity and sets coverage terms and pricing accordingly.

Why It's Important

Sound underwriting balances growth and loss costs. Price risk precisely, protect the book, and keep the carrier solvent and competitive.

How to Improve Underwriting Skills

Sharper, faster, safer decisions—aim for that:

1. Use richer data: Internal loss history, third‑party datasets, credit, geospatial, IoT, telematics—calibrated and governed.

2. Blend human judgment with AI: Machine learning for triage and scorecards; underwriter oversight for edge cases and ethics.

3. Refresh risk models: Refit and back‑test frequently. Track drift. Add emerging risks—cyber, climate, supply chain fragility.

4. Digitize intake: Straight‑through processing for low‑complexity risks; rules engines and checklists for consistency.

5. Tight documentation: Rationale, data sources, deviations from guidelines—auditable trails reduce leakage.

6. Privacy first: Minimize sensitive data, apply strong controls, and comply with applicable privacy laws.

How to Display Underwriting Skills on Your Resume

2. Risk Assessment

Risk assessment estimates the likelihood and severity of losses for people, property, or portfolios to guide coverage, pricing, and controls.

Why It's Important

Get risk wrong and margins evaporate. Get it right and pricing, capital, and growth line up.

How to Improve Risk Assessment Skills

1. Enhance inputs: Data quality checks, external benchmarks, scenario libraries (cat, inflation, recession, litigation).

2. Advanced analytics: Predictive models, exposure‑based pricing, segmentation, and explainability for governance.

3. Scenario and stress testing: Tail events, correlations, concentration risk; document assumptions.

4. Real‑time signals: Alerts on weather, cyber threats, supply chain disruptions to re-score quickly.

5. Model governance: Validation, monitoring, versioning, and clear ownership.

6. Regulatory alignment: Stay current with requirements affecting models and disclosures.

How to Display Risk Assessment Skills on Your Resume

3. Claims Handling

Claims handling manages the full lifecycle from first notice of loss through investigation, adjudication, payment, and recovery.

Why It's Important

This is the promise moment. Fair, fast claims keep customers and rein in loss adjustment expense and leakage.

How to Improve Claims Handling Skills

1. Automate the routine: Straight‑through settlement for low‑severity claims; eFNOL; document capture; rules‑based routing.

2. Smarter triage: Segment by complexity, severity, and fraud risk; assign the right skill to the right claim.

3. Fraud analytics: Networks, anomaly detection, and referral workflows with human review.

4. Clear communication: Omnichannel updates, plain language, expectations set early.

5. Supplier networks: Preferred vendors, SLAs, and performance tracking for repairs, medical, legal.

6. Measure and learn: Cycle time, severity, reopens, litigation rate; root‑cause fixes feed back into underwriting and product.

How to Display Claims Handling Skills on Your Resume

4. Actuarial Analysis

Actuarial analysis applies statistics and financial theory to price risk, project liabilities, and ensure adequate reserves and capital.

Why It's Important

It anchors pricing, reserving, and solvency. Without credible estimates, strategy wobbles.

How to Improve Actuarial Analysis Skills

1. Data discipline: Robust cleaning, credibility weighting, exposure alignment, and reproducible pipelines.

2. Modern methods: GLMs, GBMs, credibility, Bayesian techniques, and stochastic reserving where appropriate.

3. Standard fluency: Understand and operationalize LDTI and IFRS 17 where applicable.

4. Scenario work: Inflation, social inflation, climate, judicial shifts—quantify and document impacts.

5. Tooling: R/Python/SAS for modeling; version control; peer review; model monitoring for drift.

How to Display Actuarial Analysis Skills on Your Resume

5. Salesforce CRM

Salesforce CRM centralizes customer, policy, and pipeline data, automates workflows, and powers targeted engagement for carriers and brokers.

Why It's Important

Cleaner data and automated processes translate into faster quotes, better service, and more cross‑sell. Revenue follows clarity.

How to Improve Salesforce CRM Skills

1. Tailor the data model: Custom objects for policies, endorsements, claims, and producer management.

2. Integrate the stack: Connect PAS, billing, document management, and call center systems via APIs.

3. Automate work: Flows for renewals, endorsements, approvals, and notifications; reduce manual keystrokes.

4. Make it smarter: Use Einstein for lead scoring, next best action, and churn signals—human‑reviewed.

5. Service at speed: Service Cloud, knowledge bases, and case SLAs; mobile access for field teams.

6. Security and compliance: Profiles, field‑level security, encryption, audit trails, and rigorous data hygiene.

7. Train continuously: Role‑based enablement, playbooks, dashboards people actually use.

How to Display Salesforce CRM Skills on Your Resume

6. Policy Administration

Policy administration manages the lifecycle—quoting, issuance, endorsements, renewals, cancellations, and billing orchestration.

Why It's Important

It’s the engine room. Accurate, compliant execution keeps promises and margins intact.

How to Improve Policy Administration Skills

1. Modern PAS: Product configurators, API‑first design, and low‑code rules to speed product changes.

2. Automate routine work: RPA and workflows for data entry, docs, endorsements, and compliance checks.

3. Digital self‑service: Portals and mobile for payments, ID cards, endorsements, and status tracking.

4. Data and analytics: Renewal retention dashboards, midterm adjustment patterns, and pricing feedback loops.

5. Controls and audits: Versioned forms, rate/rule governance, and policy‑level audit trails.

6. Skilling up: Training on new products, systems, and regulatory changes.

How to Display Policy Administration Skills on Your Resume

7. Regulatory Compliance

Compliance means operating within laws, regulations, and standards that govern insurance products, distribution, privacy, reporting, and solvency.

Why It's Important

It protects customers, preserves trust, and prevents fines or business disruption. It’s guardrails and credibility in one.

How to Improve Regulatory Compliance Skills

1. Map obligations: Licensing, market conduct, privacy (e.g., GDPR/CCPA/GLBA), cybersecurity, and financial reporting.

2. Program design: Policies, controls, testing plans, training cadence, and clear ownership.

3. Model governance: Documentation, validation, monitoring, and explainability across pricing and claims models.

4. Accounting standards: Understand and implement IFRS 17 or LDTI where applicable; align data and disclosures.

5. Vendor oversight: Due diligence, SLAs, security reviews, and contingency planning.

6. Audit and improve: Regular internal audits and remediation tracking; board reporting that’s crisp and honest.

How to Display Regulatory Compliance Skills on Your Resume

8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM is the strategy and tooling to manage leads, policyholders, brokers, and partners—across sales, service, and marketing.

Why It's Important

When data is unified and journeys are intentional, retention rises and acquisition costs fall.

How to Improve Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Skills

1. One customer view: Consolidate policy, claim, billing, and interaction data with good hygiene.

2. Personalize: Segmentation, lifecycle triggers, and content that reflects coverage and life events.

3. Frictionless service: Live chat, chatbots, and robust knowledge bases; measure resolution and CSAT.

4. Self‑service: Secure portals for documents, payments, endorsements, and claim updates.

5. Feedback loops: NPS/CSAT surveys, close‑the‑loop actions, and churn modeling.

6. Governance: Consent management, preference centers, and strict access controls.

How to Display Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Skills on Your Resume

9. Data Analysis (e.g., Excel, SQL)

Data analysis in insurance uses tools like Excel and SQL to wrangle policy, claims, and exposure data to drive pricing, reserving, operations, and growth decisions.

Why It's Important

Better queries, cleaner datasets, sharper insights—pricing tightens, fraud drops, and operations hum.

How to Improve Data Analysis (e.g., Excel, SQL) Skills

1. Excel depth: Power Query, PivotTables, advanced functions, sensitivity analysis, and clean modeling layouts.

2. SQL mastery: Joins, window functions, CTEs, performance tuning, and careful handling of date/time and currencies.

3. Data quality: Profiling, de‑duplication, reconciliation to source systems, and lineage tracking.

4. Visualization: Tell the story with clear charts and thoughtful labeling; minimize clutter.

5. Insurance metrics: Loss/LAE ratios, combined ratio, frequency/severity, exposure trends, retention, and lifetime value.

6. Documentation: Assumptions and definitions so analyses can be re‑run and trusted.

How to Display Data Analysis (e.g., Excel, SQL) Skills on Your Resume

10. Financial Modeling

Financial modeling builds structured representations of an insurer’s economics—premiums, losses, expenses, investments, capital—to forecast performance and evaluate strategy.

Why It's Important

It informs pricing, reinsurance, capital allocation, and strategic bets. Visibility today prevents surprises tomorrow.

How to Improve Financial Modeling Skills

1. Clear architecture: Inputs, calculations, and outputs separated; transparent assumptions; no hard‑coded mysteries.

2. Driver‑based: Tie results to exposures, rate change, mix, frequency/severity, expense ratios, yield curves.

3. Scenario and sensitivity: Rate adequacy, inflation shocks, cat loads, reinsurance structures, and investment swings.

4. Insurance specifics: Claims triangles, development patterns, seasonality, and ALM for asset‑liability matching.

5. Controls: Version control, audits, peer review, and change logs.

6. Validation: Back‑test versus actuals, reconcile to GL, refine parameters continuously.

How to Display Financial Modeling Skills on Your Resume

11. SAS Analytics

SAS enables advanced statistical modeling, data management, and reporting at enterprise scale—useful for pricing, reserving, fraud, and marketing analytics.

Why It's Important

When datasets grow wide and governance matters, SAS brings stability, performance, and auditability.

How to Improve SAS Analytics Skills

1. Data foundations: Standardize schemas, enforce data quality, and build reusable ETL with auditable steps.

2. Advanced procedures: Use PROC SQL, GLM/GENMOD, HP procedures, and time series where appropriate.

3. Operationalize: Schedule jobs, promote models, monitor performance, and track drift.

4. Scale smart: Leverage in‑memory processing and distributed computing for heavy workloads.

5. Documentation and training: Code comments, wikis, and ongoing upskilling to keep models maintainable.

How to Display SAS Analytics Skills on Your Resume

12. Tableau Visualization

Tableau turns complex insurance data into interactive dashboards for fast, visual decision‑making.

Why It's Important

Busy leaders need clarity. Good visuals slice through complexity and spark action.

How to Improve Tableau Visualization Skills

1. Pick the right chart: Lines for trends, bars for comparisons, maps for location, scatter for relationships.

2. Reduce noise: Intentional color, consistent scales, concise labels, and purposeful white space.

3. Make it interactive: Filters, highlight actions, parameters, and drill‑downs that answer the next question.

4. Smart tooltips: Context on hover—definitions, deltas, and small multiples when they help.

5. Design dashboards: A narrative flow; each tile earns its spot; mobile layouts where needed.

6. Performance: Optimize extracts, reduce row counts, and simplify calculations for snappy loads.

7. Governance: Certified data sources and definitions to keep one version of the truth.

How to Display Tableau Visualization Skills on Your Resume