US Accountant

Overview

A growing property and casualty insurer is seeking a Senior Accountant to take over the current role’s responsibilities and, over time, assume broader responsibility for accounting across the insurance carrier and its affiliated MGA and agency operations. This will support the CFO in shifting time toward budgeting and higher-level financial responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the general ledger under GAAP for the agency and support accounting across the insurance carrier and affiliated MGA operations.
• Perform monthly close activities.
• Prepare financial statements for management review.
• Perform reconciliations and prepare journal entries, including statutory accounting entries for the insurance carrier related to:
  • investments
  • losses paid
  • loss reserves
• Investigate reconciling differences, document findings, and propose corrections.
• Prepare loss-paid and reserve data for the actuary, working with large datasets.
• Record and reconcile investment activity and coordinate with the investment advisor, custodian, and investment recordkeeper as needed.
• Assist with NAIC statutory annual and quarterly statements, including schedules, supporting workpapers, premium tax, regulatory fee, and other state insurance compliance filings.
• Research new or unusual transactions using applicable guidance, including NAIC SSAPs and annual statement instructions; present findings and recommended accounting treatment.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve accounting efficiency and accuracy, including streamlining spreadsheets, workpapers, and recurring processes.
• Support other accounting activities and special projects as needed, taking on additional responsibilities as knowledge of the business grows.

Requirements (Must-Have)

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• Audit experience:
  • At least 2 years of audit experience if the candidate also has hands-on industry accounting experience; or
  • At least 4 years of audit experience if the candidate does not have hands-on industry accounting experience.
• Strong understanding of GAAP, accounting fundamentals, debits and credits, and general ledger structure.
• Practical experience with month-end close, reconciliations, journal entries, and financial reporting.
• Advanced Excel skills, including:
  • pivot tables
  • VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP
  • SUMIFS
  • complex formulas
  • working with large datasets
• Strong attention to detail, organization, time management, initiative, and accountability.
• Ability to manage multiple entities and deadlines with minimal supervision; work independently in a remote environment; proactively flag issues.

Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Have)

• STAT (statutory) accounting experience.
• Experience with insurance carrier, MGA, or agency accounting.
• Experience with investment accounting, loss-paid accounting, loss reserves, or actuarial data preparation.
• Experience supporting NAIC annual and quarterly statutory statements and related filings.
• Sage Intacct experience (experience with another general ledger system is also acceptable).
• Proactive approach to improving processes, simplifying workpapers, and increasing efficiency.
• CPA designation or equivalent Philippine accounting qualification.

Tools & Systems

• Sage Intacct is the preferred general ledger system (experience with other general ledger software is acceptable).
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills are required.
• Reporting outputs are provided to the accounting team for recording and analysis.

Compensation & Benefits

• Not specified in the provided job description.

Location

• Open to Philippine citizens currently based in the Philippines.

Success Milestones

• At 30 days: Build understanding of the organization’s accounting processes, systems, entities, and current responsibilities; begin learning insurance-specific accounting procedures with guidance.
• At 90 days: Handle established Accountant responsibilities with increasing independence; maintain accurate reconciliations and accounting records; begin identifying practical opportunities to streamline recurring work. Timing will depend on prior experience and the complexity of the training required.

Growth Path

The role is expected to expand as the candidate develops knowledge of the business and takes on more of the insurance carrier’s accounting responsibilities. There is potential to progress toward an Accounting Manager role as the organization grows, based on performance, readiness, and business needs.