Underwriting is an extremely important and sensitive step in the process of securing insurance coverage. Where many see it only as a process in which an insurance carrier assesses the risk of insuring a client’s life, we view underwriting as an opportunity to advocate on behalf of our clients by presenting the risk effectively to the carrier, negotiating to increase value, and creating a clear path to policy placement.
Our firm’s underwriting experience—as well as our commitment to placing high quality business—plays a critical role in our ability to offer high quality underwriting support and service. We understand the complexities of the process and have resources with underwriting experience in a variety of areas, including exam results, case presentation, carrier negotiations, and capacity management on larger cases.
As a Member Firm of the M Financial Group, we have access to a variety of underwriting resources that enhance our efforts. M Financial is a leader in delivering product differentiation to clients while also sharing our focus on process differentiation. This allows us to have a direct and significant impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of the work we do for clients. Further, M Financial is the only distribution system that invests its own capital in the business placed by its member firms. Through M Financial Re, as of 2021, M Financial invests upwards of $50 million a year in the high-quality business placed by M Member Firms. Reinsurance provides access to carrier pricing assumptions, which allows M Financial to effectively track experience, while monitoring changes in policyholder interests. 1
The following is an overview of the key components of our underwriting approach, which continues to differentiate us in the marketplace.