Head Underwriting

Position: Head of Life Underwriting

Our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions.

Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long‑term investment and savings solutions.

Through telling it like it is, owning it now, and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

Head of Life Underwriting Reporting to:
Director of Individual Annuities

Location:

Preference for candidates based in Scotland (Stirling or Edinburgh). We’re flexible on location for the right person.

The Role

M&G Life is a division of M&G and runs the Prudential Assurance Company and its subsidiaries. Individual Life & Pensions is the division of M&G Life responsible for the manufacture and management of individual insurance products within the UK and internationally.

We are recruiting a Head of Life Underwriting to support our launch of an individual lifetime annuity offering, and to lead the team responsible for the underwriting of individual annuities and discounted gift trusts.

This role represents a unique opportunity to play a key role in the launch of a new innovative annuity product, and to design, set up and lead a new underwriting function.

This role is critical in assessing and underwriting complex annuity applications, ensuring robust risk management, and supporting the development of underwriting strategies and processes. The successful candidate will play a key role in delivering high‑quality underwriting decisions, mentoring junior underwriters, and contributing to product development and innovation.

Key accountabilities for this role

• Lead the design and set up of a new annuity underwriting team, including recruitment; the team will also cover discounted gift trust underwriting.
• Liaise closely with reinsurers to establish the required processes and guidelines for manual underwriting.
• Act as a referral point for junior underwriters and provide management, training, and quality assurance.
• Assess and underwrite more complex enhanced annuity applications, in line with underwriting guidelines and risk appetite.
• Provide expert medical and financial risk assessments using evidence‑based decision‑making.
• Collaborate with the Pricing, Operations, and Proposition teams to support the development and refinement of annuity products.
• Contribute to the set up and continuous improvement of underwriting processes, tools, and automation initiatives.
• Liaise with reinsurers on facultative cases and support treaty negotiations where appropriate.

Knowledge

• Deep understanding of UK life insurance products and concepts is essential, with both technical and commercial knowledge of annuities.
• Excellent knowledge of annuity products, services and distribution methods.
• Thorough familiarity with regulatory requirements and compliance standards in the insurance industry.
• Up‑to‑date knowledge of medical, financial, and regulatory developments impacting underwriting.

Skills and Experience

• Highly experienced annuity underwriter, with experience of managing underwriting teams.
• Customer centric mindset – a genuine passion for putting the customer at the heart of decision making and delivering high‑quality customer outcomes.
• Strong analytical and decision‑making skills with the ability to assess complex underwriting cases.
• Familiarity with reinsurance practices and treaty arrangements; experience working with reinsurers’ underwriting rules engines and underwriting manuals.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills and communication skills with the ability to explain underwriting decisions clearly and to effectively convey technical information to a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Proven ability to lead and collaborate with cross‑functional teams, including Operations,…