General Insurance✓ Verified · outline & fact-checked · Sep 2026Difficulty 2/5
A producer completes the application with the applicant, observes the applicant's appearance, and verifies the information before forwarding it to the home office. This activity is known as:
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why B is correct
Field underwriting is the preliminary risk evaluation performed by the producer or agent. The agent obtains accurate application data, observes the applicant, and identifies any obvious risk factors, thereby assisting the company underwriter who makes the final decision. Field underwriting is a critical quality-control step because the insurer relies heavily on information gathered at the point of sale, and poor field underwriting leads to mispriced or misclassified risks.
Why the other options are wrong
- A) Claims adjusting evaluates losses after they occur, not the risk at the time of application.
- C) Actuarial pricing builds rate structures from statistics; it is a home-office function.
- D) Investment management concerns the insurer's assets, not the selection of applicants.
Memory hook
The agent is the underwriter's eyes in the field.