Underwriting file note
The written, dated record of an underwriting decision: what the underwriter knew, what was decided, why, and what would change the underwriter's mind.
The underwriting file note records, at the moment the risk is accepted, declined or amended, the elements the decision rests on: the information received and its gaps, the technical price and the gap with the written price, the terms obtained, the reasons for the choice and the assumptions behind it. It has three readers. The auditor and the supervisor check in it that the delegated authority was respected; the next underwriter finds the account's memory in it; and the underwriter, a year or two later, sets what was thought against what happened. That third use is what makes it a learning tool: without a written record predating the loss, every rereading is contaminated by hindsight bias. A good note is therefore short, dated, and says what, if it happened, would prove the decision wrong.
Hypothetical case: an underwriter accepts the renewal of an industrial cyber risk at 88 percent of the technical price. The note, dated that day, gives three reasons, including the network segmentation observed at the survey, and one review condition: if the promised backup audit is not delivered within ninety days, the decision must be revisited.
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One letter a week. First, the week's underwriting note, when one is published: a dated, argued decision, signed by Paul Bernardski. Then what the observatory published on cyber risk, political risk and insurance. No account, no tracking.
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