Leighan Hazlewood
Underwriter

Following sixth form, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to go to university and whilst I had a number of Saturday jobs at school, I was keen to start a full time role. A vacancy came up as an underwriting assistant in the commercial team at ICCI, so I went for it. After 4 years, I felt I needed a new challenge and left to try captive Insurance. Unfortunately, this area of insurance wasn’t for me. I missed underwriting, which I realised was what I enjoyed and was most experienced in. I also missed the team at ICCI, so I re-applied.

In the time I’ve been with the company my career has developed and grown. I am now a professional underwriter and this year I am looking to complete my underwriting licence in property and packages, which should help me progress even further.

I work in the commercial team at ICCI as an underwriter. I support the teams in both islands on a range of property and packages, which involves most underwriting commercial risks (restaurants, offices, shops, let properties, hotels). In addition I deal with renewals, new business and broker interaction. As an underwriter, I assess the various types of risks and decide whether we wish to quote for the business or not, set a price and negotiate with brokers to win each piece of business.

I have very much enjoyed coaching and training our underwriting apprentice. I am quite patient and enjoy transferring my knowledge to others. I also love working as part of a team that supports each other. I also enjoy the variety in my role, as every day is different.

Socialising – have something to look forward to each week, spend time with family and friends and colleagues.

Time management – try your best to manage your workload within your contracted hours and prioritise workloads on busy days.

Working from home – if your employer allows you to work from home, consider using this when you have projects or deadlines to meet. I find I’m more productive when I work like this.

Three words I’d use to describe ICCI are ‘hardworking, friendly environment’. My favourite part about working for ICCI is my work colleagues, most of us have been here for a long time, so we all get on well and socialise outside of work.

Rather than going direct to an insurer, the benefit of going through a broker is that our customers can get independent insurance advice. A broker can independently explain the cover, ensure you know what you are buying and check you have the right insurance cover for your needs.

It’s really important that customers get current valuations on their property or valuables. For example, with rising inflation levels a policyholder may have miscalculated rebuild costs and if you have not reviewed these in a while, your house could potentially be underinsured.

Another instance could be where you are having work done to your house like an extension and you haven’t told your broker/insurer. All insurers need to know about works being undertaken, to ensure you have the right cover in place during any renovations.

Rising inflation levels are also impacting the price of precious metals therefore It is worth getting up-to-date valuations on itemised jewellery, to ensure any valuable items are insured within the policy limits.

Our ‘What Sums Insured’ guide on our website helps customers work out their contents value. Customers may be driven by price, but it is important to make sure the house and contents are insured for the correct amount as this could impact upon you greatly if you make a claim in the future.

We are a local insurer – we understand the local market, we have vast local knowledge of the islands and can send loss adjustors to customers in a short space of time. In terms of our commercial policyholders, we are also able to provide risk management advice and carry out surveys to identify potential risk hazards, so that we can help prevent losses in the future.

I love going to different places on holiday – I loved Croatia. I also enjoy going out for dinner and drinks with family and friends and scenic walks around the Island.

I wanted to be in criminal forensics. I find it so interesting – I would love to investigate a crime scene, get DNA and work out who did it. It fascinates me!

Travelling the world. My list is very long with Asia, Cambodia and Thailand at the top.

I once ate pistachios with the shells on!

‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ by Toploader, it’s a classic. Just love that tune!