Insurance veteran Randi Glazer is using her more than 20 years of experience to help others “survive” the industry.
After working both formally and informally as a mentor – starting with a year-long training program at Aetna – Glazer was disheartened to see insurance companies pulling back resources once dedicated to onboarding new hires. She decided to respond by writing a book.
“12 Strategies to Survive the Insurance Industry” offers advice to newcomers in the industry, encouraging them to both engage in self-directed training and to seek out experienced professionals to offer the kind of guidance Glazer herself once received from professional mentors.
“Once I started writing, it just flowed,” Glazer said of her experience writing the book. “So many insurance companies have sacrificed training so they can get premium on the books, and that’s sad. I believe knowledge is power and I want to share the knowledge I have.”
A Long Island native and the daughter of an accountant, Glazer completed her degree in economics from the State University of New York before “falling into” insurance – “Like everybody else I’ve ever known,” she said.
Currently an underwriting consultant with
Liberty Mutual, she got her start at what was then Aetna Casualty, training as an underwriter where she learned to “read policies line by line.” Her long career has included marketing and organizational leadership roles, as well as underwriting positions, at
CNA,
Chubb,
Hiscox and
Swiss Re.
Insurance has played a large role in Glazer’s life, including introducing her to her husband when they were both working in the industry in
Hartford, Connecticut.
“We had both changed jobs and were working together,” Glazer recalled. “We were friends for a while before I shared my feelings. Now, we’ve been married six years in July.”
That relationship last year took Glazer to Walnut Creek, California – a suburb of San Francisco – when her husband sought an exit from the industry in order to pursue a career in software engineering. It’s been an adjustment, to say the least – Glazer prefers the “if you have something to say, you say it” mentality of New York City – but some things in the industry are simply true everywhere.
Case in point? Honesty really is the best policy, even if it means turning away new business.
“If I don’t like something on an application, I’ll tell the customer right away. I’m not going to wait three weeks and then say no, and I’m not going to accept new business just to get more premium on the books,” she said. “I decline 90% of accounts that come in. If I didn’t, my loss ratio would be through the roof.
“I end up getting a lot more business that way because people trust me.”
Glazer has the numbers to back it up, too. At Liberty Mutual, her goal for the year is to write $1.8 million for the year – and she just hit it.
“I did it on my terms,” she said.
Glazer’s book, which she says will be useful to new hires and industry veterans alike, is available via Amazon and on Kindle.
