What AIG actually looks for
AIG, or American International Group, is a global insurance company headquartered in New York with roots going back to 1919, when Cornelius Vander Starr founded an insurance agency in Shanghai that eventually grew into one of the largest insurers in the world under longtime leader Hank Greenberg. AIG is inseparable in most people's minds from the 2008 financial crisis, when its financial products division's exposure to credit default swaps nearly collapsed the company and led to a US government bailout of roughly 180 billion dollars, all of which AIG eventually repaid, and that history is genuinely part of the company's institutional memory around risk management. In recent years AIG has deliberately simplified its business, spinning off its life insurance and retirement business as an independent public company called Corebridge Financial through an IPO in 2022, allowing AIG to focus more tightly on general insurance, meaning property, casualty, and specialty commercial lines. Interviewers, particularly for risk, underwriting, and finance roles, want to see genuine understanding of how the 2008 crisis reshaped AIG's approach to risk concentration and capital management, not just knowledge of current products.
Common questions and how to answer them
AIG nearly collapsed in 2008 due to concentrated risk in credit default swaps. How does that history influence how you'd think about risk concentration today? is a direct, fair question given AIG's real past, and a thoughtful answer shows understanding of diversification and stress testing rather than just reciting the history. AIG spun off Corebridge Financial to focus on general insurance. Why might a company choose to narrow its focus like this? tests understanding of AIG's actual recent strategy, and rewards candidates who can explain the benefits of a more focused underwriting business versus a sprawling mix of insurance and financial products. How would you assess a large commercial property risk in an area with growing exposure to natural disasters? is realistic for underwriting and catastrophe risk roles, given AIG's significant commercial and specialty property book.
How to prepare
Know the basic outline of AIG's 2008 crisis and bailout, since it's genuinely part of the company's history and interviewers assume familiarity, especially for finance, risk, and underwriting roles. Understand the Corebridge Financial spinoff and what it means for AIG's current business focus on general insurance rather than life insurance and retirement products. For underwriting or claims roles, think through how catastrophe and climate related risk is reshaping commercial property insurance, since this is a live, ongoing challenge across the industry that AIG deals with directly.