My Career, My Story – Leah Moran
Can you give a brief background into your role and how you got into the insurance industry?
I am currently a Casualty Underwriter with AIG Ireland, where I am part of a team that have responsibility for Motor and Liability renewals / new business. I am also responsible for managing our Contaminated Products portfolio locally. I studied Business with Insurance, Risk Management (RM) and German in the University of Limerick. I chose Insurance and RM as my Major because it was the area that appealed to me the most. I spent my 8-month co-operative placement in a Risk Officer role in an investments firm in Luxembourg where I gained great experience and insight into the risk management industry and the day-to-day tasks. I decided to pursue a career in the insurance industry upon finishing my final exams as those modules were the ones that interested me most and there were ample job opportunities. I previously worked with Allianz Worldwide Care as a German Claims Processing Officer where I got a brief introduction to the world of insurance before starting with AIG as a Casualty Underwriter in October 2019.
Can you explain what your average day looks like?
It really varies depending on the time of the year / month. Usually, an average day consists of preparing renewal terms for renewal accounts that fall due, reviewing new business submissions as well as admin tasks and responding to broker queries. I am also regularly in contact with our broker and client partners to discuss their specific account requirements. It is also my responsibility to promote our core products, for example, earlier this year I hosted a virtual event as part of the AIG Online Broker Academy, where I was able to speak about the risk landscape and our solutions in terms of Contaminated Products Insurance.
In your view, how can the industry further promote itself to young professionals?
I think that the industry needs to communicate more in terms of the opportunities and young talent within the insurance sector. I personally find the variety and the broad nature of the work exciting, but it wasn’t until I started working here that I really discovered this. The industry should be active promoting itself at various Graduate Fairs, within secondary schools, etc. I think that the apprenticeship programme being run by the Insurance Institute is a great initiative to encourage young people into the industry and that should be promoted along with more visibility around Graduate Programmes offered by Insurance Companies. From my own personal experience these are what appeals to most students towards the end of their time University who are considering what next steps to take.
What are your ambitions for the future?
I’m currently focused on finishing my professional exams and learning as much as I can about the world of Casualty underwriting, I find there’s constantly more to learn which is important to me as it keeps things exciting in the day to day. I’m looking forward to expanding my knowledge and experience over the coming years so that I can grow professionally and would love to gain international experience abroad.
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