10 of our amazing people were recognized by their colleagues for living our SiriusPoint values and were nominated by their colleagues to be on the podium for the New York Stock Exchange bell ringing in August. We are more than just our jobs, and as ‘One SiriusPoint’ it’s important we understand how every person plays a role in helping us to be recognized as a best-in-class insurer and reinsurer. Meet Josh Altman, Compliance Manager P&C Programs, who is based in New York.
Navigating the red tape
I’m the Compliance Manager for Property & Casualty Programs. There are a few different kinds of role the Compliance title applies to. Mine is a product development compliance role, so when we’re onboarding program partners I do the A-Z of making sure from a regulatory compliance and a product compliance perspective that they’re all set up properly and fit with what SiriusPoint is looking for in a partner.
Any forms, rates, and rules the program partner wants to use on an admitted basis have to be filed with the State Departments of Insurance in the US, which is a whole different ball game. Dealing with the Departments of Insurance is like dealing with 50 separate little governments – each state has their own sets of regulations and rules, and before you’re going to issue a policy to a policyholder, they have to make sure it abides by their regulations and isn’t discriminatory or anything like that. That means that your product in one state may look a bit different than in another state.
I help them through that process, developing things like their coverages, their rates and rules, and I file it with the state. There’s a lot of back and forth before an actual product gets launched.
I’m also involved in audits, making sure the audit schedule is right and that any partners are doing what we expect them to be doing. There’s plenty of back-office work, things which people don’t see but it keeps the engine running and makes sure we’re not incurring fines or penalties from state regulators. It’s essential for business continuity.
Working with the regulators is often the most challenging part of my job, just because of the bureaucracy and the red tape, and having to find the right person to speak to. It’s the nature of the beast, but it’s certainly a challenge.
No cookie cutter days in compliance
My favorite thing about my job is the people. Our managers are very supportive, and they drive an entrepreneurial culture where you can put your knowledge to use.
My team has really had the chance to grow together organically, which has been fantastic to experience. I think collaboration is fundamental to keeping the business progressing. When you take all these super talented people with different backgrounds and experiences and mesh them together, you create outside the box thinking and real solution driven work.
The best part of my role is the multidisciplinary way of working. I came into compliance via underwriting, and I like that I have the opportunity to work with all different teams. I’m not having cookie cutter days; I could be working with actuarial one day, claims the next, and then underwriting. I get to see and feel lots of different parts of the organization.
I’m proud to have got to this point in my career. I’ve been in the industry a little under 20 years, and I love the flexibility to be entrepreneurial and a little free with my ideas and how I want to implement things. I care a lot about helping young talent, too. Teaching younger people about insurance and reinsurance and helping them to see that it’s a great space to be in.
Life outside SiriusPoint
When I was younger, I considered becoming a police officer – I even passed the NYPD test. I always grew up with the mentality of wanting to help people, but my family were worried about the dangers of the job. Now I try to channel that desire to help in other ways, like through my community or just small daily actions. I have three children – Aaron is 16, Ella is 13 and Charlotte is 8. Seeing my kids grow up and be successful is a huge source of pride to me. When Scott came on board, I could see that he took work life balance seriously, and that was very important to me.
We’re a very outdoorsy family, and we love to travel. We make the most of being able to get out and see the rest of the US, but also to go abroad as much as we can. We just visited Italy – starting in Rome and then through to Tuscany, Capri and the Amalfi Coast.
I’m a total documentary nerd, and a big fan of crime documentaries. If anyone else is into that too, I’d recommend Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case, which is about a flight attendant who went missing in Tokyo in 2000.