Equity Research interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

72

Firms

45

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsMorningstar12Man Group6Balyasny Asset Management5BLBlackRock5FTFranklin Templeton5MSCI5Jefferies4CSCredit Suisse3Fidelity Investments3Moody's3Perella Weinberg Partners3Point723S&P Global3The Vanguard Group3WMWellington Management3Advent International2Apollo Global Management2Bank of America2Carlyle Group2DED.E. Shaw2Houlihan Lokey2HSBC2Piper Sandler2Sequoia Capital2SSState Street2Viking Global Investors2WBWilliam Blair2ACAQR Capital Management1BGBaupost Group1BMBNY Mellon1Centerview Partners1Coatue Management1Goldman Sachs1GSGuggenheim Securities1HWHarris Williams1Insight Partners1Invesco1Mizuho1Moelis & Company1MSMorgan Stanley1PIMCO1SCSchroders1Scotiabank1T. Rowe Price1TSTruist Securities1

Topic

All topicsResearch process9Stock pitch6Company analysis8Investment philosophy5Valuation14Modelling2Portfolio and risk8Macro8Sector knowledge2Accounting8Career and fit12Industry knowledge6Quantitative research1Sector: technology3Sector: consumer1Sector: healthcare1Sector: energy1Sector: financials2Sector: industrials1Case and estimation2

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitBrainteaserMarket view

1. 061How would you analyse an insurance company?Sector: financialsHardtechnicalPerella Weinberg PartnersFinancial Institutions Group · New York · 2026

   Say this

   Two businesses in one: underwriting and investing. Judge underwriting on the combined ratio and investing on the return on the float. Value it on price to book against return on equity.

   Then walk it

   1. The combined ratio is the core underwriting metric: claims plus expenses divided by premiums. Below 100 means underwriting profit; above 100 means they lose money on insurance and rely on investment income.
   2. The float is the money collected as premiums before claims are paid. A company with a combined ratio under 100 is effectively being paid to hold other people's money, which is the whole Berkshire insight.
   3. Reserving is where the judgement and the risk sit. Reserves are estimates of future claims, so an under-reserved insurer looks profitable until it does not. Watch reserve development, which shows whether prior years' estimates proved too low.
   4. The investment portfolio matters for duration and credit risk. A long-tail insurer holds long assets, so it is highly rate-sensitive on both sides.
   5. Valuation is price to book against ROE, like a bank. Life insurers add embedded value and the new business margin, because the economics span decades.
   6. And know the cycle: insurance pricing is cyclical, hardening after large loss events and softening when capital floods in. Where you are in that cycle drives the sector's earnings more than any single company's skill.

   Where candidates lose it

   Treating it as a normal company with revenue and margin. The distinctive content is the combined ratio, the float and reserve adequacy. Missing reserving means missing the main way insurers surprise negatively.

   Expect next

   • What is reserve development and why does it matter?
   • How do rising rates affect an insurer?
   • How would you value a life insurer differently?

   Reported by candidates at Perella Weinberg Partners (Financial Institutions Group, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.