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 The role being advertised is an existing vacancy. About Manulife and John Hancock Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html . Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer At Manulife/John Hancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law. It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact [email protected] . Referenced Salary Location Canada, Full Time Remote Working Arrangement Remote Salary range is expected to be between $79,700.00 CAD - $129,700.00 CAD Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance. The actual salary will vary depending on local market conditions, geography and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education/training. If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact [email protected] for the salary range for your location. Manulife offers eligible employees a wide array of customizable benefits, including health, dental, mental health, vision, short- and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance coverage, adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits, and employee/family assistance plans. We also offer eligible employees various retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence. If you are applying for this role in the U.S., please contact [email protected] for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions. We use data and analytics technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and automated processing tools, to analyze and process the information you provide to us or third parties in the application process. For more information, please refer to our personal information collection statement .