What insurance teams do
In distribution, agency managers recruit, license and train agents or advisors and help them close policies; bancassurance managers sell through partner bank branches; direct sales and telesales teams sell to walk-in, online and renewal customers; and corporate teams sell group health, fire, marine and liability covers to companies. Underwriters assess proposals, ask for medical tests or risk inspections and set premiums and terms. Policy servicing handles endorsements, renewals, nominee changes and customer requests. Claims teams register claims, appoint surveyors or investigators, assess documents and settle or repudiate within the company's authority limits. Actuarial, product, compliance and reinsurance teams work at head office.
- Distribution: agency, bancassurance, broking, direct and digital sales
- Underwriting: risk assessment, pricing inputs and policy terms
- Operations: policy issuance, servicing, renewals and customer service
- Claims: registration, survey, assessment and settlement
- Head office: actuarial, product, reinsurance, compliance and finance
Insurance teams at 50, 500 and 5,000 employees
At 50 employees, an insurance business is usually a broking firm or a corporate agency: a principal officer, relationship managers for corporate clients, a few retail sales executives, a claims support executive and a policy servicing desk. At 500 employees, a broker or regional insurer has branch heads, sales managers for each channel, an underwriting team, a claims team with in-house assessors and surveyor coordination, and an operations hub.
A 5,000-employee insurer has channel heads for agency, bancassurance, direct and corporate business, zonal and regional sales managers, and hundreds of branch sales managers. Underwriting and claims are split by line of business, such as health, motor or life, with authority levels from branch to head office. Central operations hubs process policies at scale, and control functions such as compliance, internal audit, fraud control and grievance redressal report to senior management and board committees.
How sales, underwriting and claims work together
Sales brings proposals; underwriting decides whether the company wants them. Friction appears when sales promises terms before underwriting has seen the risk, so proposals for large or unusual covers go to underwriting before a quote is given. Claims feeds back which products, channels and intermediaries produce bad claims, and underwriting and product teams use that to change rules. Operations depends on sales for complete proposal forms and on underwriting for fast decisions. Finance handles premium accounting, commissions and claim payments. HR manages high field attrition, licensing and training schedules for sales staff, and incentive payouts that follow each channel's scheme.
Underwriting and claims authority, and reporting lines
Sales managers report to branch or area heads, who report to regional and zonal heads and the channel head. Underwriters and claims staff report through their own functional heads to the chief underwriting officer and the head of claims, not to sales. Both functions work on financial authority limits: for example, a claims officer may settle health claims up to ₹1 lakh, a claims manager up to ₹5 lakh, and anything larger goes to a claims committee at head office. Repudiations usually get a second review. Servicing changes that affect cover or premium need underwriting approval.
Typical insurance team structure
Insurance designation hierarchy
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What are the main departments in an insurance company?
The main departments are distribution or sales (agency, bancassurance, broking, direct and corporate), underwriting, claims, operations and policy servicing, customer service, actuarial and product, reinsurance, finance and investments, compliance, legal, internal audit, IT and HR. Distribution is usually the largest by headcount, while underwriting and claims decide profitability.
What does an underwriter do in an insurance company?
An underwriter decides whether to accept a proposal and on what terms. They review the proposal form, medical reports or risk inspection, check it against underwriting guidelines, and accept it, load the premium, add exclusions or decline. Senior underwriters handle large or complex risks and approve cases beyond junior authority limits.
What is the hierarchy in insurance sales?
Insurance sales usually runs from sales officer, agency development manager or bancassurance relationship manager to sales manager, branch or area sales manager, regional manager, zonal head and channel head. Agents or advisors who sell policies are usually licensed intermediaries paid by commission rather than employees, and agency managers look after them.
Who approves insurance claims?
Claims are approved by claims officers and managers within financial authority limits set by the company, with larger claims going to senior claims managers or a claims committee at head office. Where a surveyor or investigator is appointed, their report comes first. Rejections normally get a second review before the customer is told.