Life and Critical Illness Underwriting Co-Signer

The Life and Critical Illness Underwriting Co-Signer is a critical role within Manulife’s underwriting organization, responsible for delivering high-quality, competitive underwriting decisions while actively developing the next generation of underwriting talent. This role supports Manulife’s underwriting philosophy by partnering with underwriters on complex and high-value files, strengthening decision quality, and ensuring sound risk management practices are consistently applied. 

In addition to co-signing decisions, the Underwriting Co-Signer plays an important role in training, coaching, and shaping future-ready underwriting capabilities. The individual will help underwriters build confidence, critical thinking, judgment, and business awareness in an environment where digital tools, AI-enabled insights, and evolving customer expectations are changing how underwriting work is performed. Through active mentorship, file review, feedback, and collaboration, this role helps create a stronger underwriting pipeline and supports the future of underwriting at Manulife.

Key Responsibilities 

• Underwriting Decisions: Evaluate and make underwriting decisions on life and critical illness insurance applications with approval limits up to $10 million, ensuring decisions align with Manulife’s underwriting philosophy, risk appetite, and regulatory expectations. 

• Co-Signing and File Review: Partner with assigned underwriters to review complex, high-value, or development-focused files, assessing the underwriting approach, evidence ordered, documentation, decision rationale, and customer/advisor impact. 

• Training and Development: Actively train, coach, and mentor underwriters to build technical expertise, critical thinking, decision confidence, and readiness for increased approval limits and broader underwriting responsibilities. 

• Future of Underwriting Capability Building: Support the development of future-ready underwriting skills, including effective use of digital tools, AI-enabled decision support, data-driven insights, and continuous improvement practices. 

• Decision Quality and Consistency: Promote consistent application of underwriting guidelines, Manulife’s philosophy, financial and medical underwriting principles, and appropriate risk management practices. 

• Business and Customer Impact: Help underwriters understand the broader business impact of their decisions, including requirement ordering, amendments, advisor communication, cycle time, customer experience, persistency, and competitive positioning. 

• Volume and Service Expectations: Manage co-signing and underwriting work efficiently, supporting service standards and timely decision-making while balancing quality, development, and business priorities. 

• Coaching Conversations and Feedback: Provide timely, constructive feedback through case discussions, coaching sessions, office hours, and file reviews to accelerate underwriter development and reinforce learning. 

• Collaboration: Work collaboratively with underwriting leaders, Risk Management, Research, medical directors, and new business to support consistent decisions and a seamless customer and advisor experience. 

• Continuous Improvement: Identify opportunities to improve underwriting processes, documentation, training approaches, requirement ordering, and use of tools to strengthen underwriting outcomes and future capabilities. 

 
Qualifications 

• Experience: A minimum of 5 years of experience in life and critical illness underwriting, with a proven track record of handling complex and high-value cases. 

• Technical Expertise: Strong knowledge of life and critical illness underwriting, including medical, financial, non-medical, product, and persistency considerations. 

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in finance, business, health sciences, or a related field is preferred. Professional underwriting designations or progress toward designations such as FALU, FLMI, ACS, or equivalent are highly desirable. 

• Coaching and Development: Demonstrated ability to mentor, coach, and develop underwriters through practical case review, feedback, structured learning, and knowledge sharing. 

• Critical Thinking: Strong analytical, judgment, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess risk, challenge assumptions, and apply guidelines with sound business context. 

• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex decisions clearly and constructively to underwriters, leaders, advisors, and internal partners. 

• Digital Mindset: Comfort with underwriting technology, digital tools, data insights, and AI-enabled decision support, with a willingness to help others adopt new ways of working. 

• Leadership Behaviours: Ability to model collaboration, curiosity, accountability, adaptability, and a continuous improvement mindset in a fast-paced underwriting environment. 

 
Performance Metrics 

• Decision Accuracy and Risk Management: Maintain strong underwriting decision quality, with decisions aligned to Manulife’s philosophy, guidelines, audit expectations, and risk management standards. 

• Co-Signing Quality and Consistency: Demonstrate consistent, timely, and development-focused co-signing that improves file quality, decision rationale, documentation, and underwriter independence. 

• Underwriter Development Impact: Support measurable improvement in underwriter confidence, technical capability, approval-limit readiness, decision consistency, and ability to work more independently. 

• Service and Cycle Time: Contribute to timely file review and decision-making, supporting service standards while maintaining quality and development expectations. 

• Training and Knowledge Sharing: Actively participate in case clinics, coaching sessions, office hours, and training activities that strengthen team capability and support the future of underwriting. 

• Future-Ready Capability Adoption: Encourage effective use of digital tools, AI-enabled insights, data, and process improvements to help underwriters build the skills required for a changing underwriting environment. 

• Business Impact: Support improved customer and advisor experience through better requirement ordering, clearer communication, consistent decisions, and stronger alignment between risk management and business outcomes. 

When you join our team:

• We’ll empower you to learn and grow the career you want.

• We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are 

• more than just words.

• As part of our global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see