Start here: this is a competition with an October 9, 2026 entry deadline
AM Best’s 2027 Student Challenge is a solution-based competition focused on insurance and risk management. The current cycle is accepting first-round submissions through Friday, October 9, 2026. It is not a job, internship, externship or simulation run inside an employer team.
| Item | Current published detail |
|---|---|
| Program type | Insurance and risk-management student competition; not an internship |
| Initial submission deadline | Friday, October 9, 2026 |
| Finalists notified | Friday, October 30, 2026 |
| Final-round submission deadline | Friday, December 4, 2026 |
| Voting period | December 7–11, 2026 |
| Winners notified | Monday, December 14, 2026 |
| Winner published | Monday, February 1, 2027 in Best’s Review |
| Initial deliverable | Abstract of 750 words or less plus required forms and resumes/CVs |
| Final deliverable | 5–10 minute recorded presentation plus written overview of up to 500 words |
| First / second / third prize | $5,000 / $3,000 / $2,000, divided equally among team members when applicable |
| All participants | Certificate of Participation |
The first judged deliverable is a written abstract of no more than 750 words. Entrants choose one of three 2027 topics: insuring data centers, parametric technology and triggers, or innovative risk-transfer solutions. AM Best Rating Services staff review the first round and select three finalist teams from three different academic institutions.
If you are using the Challenge to build experience before internships, the practical value is the finished insurance solution, the research and judgment behind it, and any finalist recognition you actually earn. Do not describe registration itself as work experience at AM Best.
Eligibility depends on your school, age and faculty-advisor setup
Entrants must be undergraduate or graduate students enrolled at a college that either offers an insurance, risk management or actuarial science-related program, or hosts a Gamma Iota Sigma chapter. That institutional rule is the first filter; a student at a school without one of those conditions is not established as eligible by the current handbook.
Participants may enter individually or in teams of up to four. Team members must attend the same college or university, every team member must be at least 18 years old, and each team needs a faculty advisor from that institution.
The current rules do not publish a minimum GPA, required major, prior internship requirement or work-authorization rule. The application package does require a resume or CV for every team member and a description of the college or university program. Absence of a published cutoff is not a promise that background never matters in judging; it means no hard cutoff is stated in the reviewed rules.
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The first round is a research-and-writing test, not a slide-design contest
The October 9 package centers on a maximum-750-word abstract that proposes a solution to one of the three challenge topics. Teams also submit the required application, video-contact, eligibility, faculty-advisor and media-release forms, a resume or CV for each participant, and a description of the school program.
Build the abstract around a decision: what risk exists, why current approaches are insufficient, what your solution changes, who pays or benefits, how the mechanism works, and what evidence would make the idea credible. The handbook’s scoring framework later evaluates innovation, feasibility or practicality, comparison with existing products, impact, implementation planning and overall presentation.
The three current topics point to different evidence bases. Data-center insurance requires thinking about property, business interruption and cyber exposure. Parametric insurance requires explicit triggers, data sources and validation. Innovative risk transfer requires a structure, stakeholders, funding mechanism and adoption barriers. Pick the topic where your team can research the mechanism rather than just describe the problem.
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Finalists turn the idea into a presentation that becomes public-facing evidence
Finalists are notified on October 30 and must submit a 5–10 minute recorded presentation plus a written overview of no more than 500 words by December 4. The presentation must explain the solution, how it works, implementation strategy and what distinguishes it from existing approaches.
AM Best says finalist presentations are posted for viewing and that finalists complete an AM Best TV interview scheduled for January 2027. Finalist content may also appear in AM Best videos, press releases and social posts. The winning solution is scheduled to appear in the February 2027 edition of Best’s Review.
That creates a stronger externally judged signal than simply attending a career event. If your team advances, preserve the final deck or video where permitted, the written summary, the official finalist result and your own contribution. Those are the pieces you can explain later in internship interviews.
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Separate the resume signal from the prize money and from employment
AM Best lists cash prizes of $5,000 for first place, $3,000 for second and $2,000 for third. Team prizes are divided equally among team members. The first-place institution also receives $5,000 in faculty or institution recognition. The handbook notes that participant prizes are taxable income and may trigger tax reporting.
The top three submissions also receive an AM Best TV interview, a Best’s Review feature, recognition on selected AM Best social channels, an academic medal and trophy, and a press release. All participants receive a Certificate of Participation.
Use the exact stage on your resume. After submitting, you can list the challenge and the insurance solution you developed. If selected as a finalist, add finalist status. Add a placement or prize only after it is official. Do not use an AM Best internship title because the Challenge is not employment.
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Use the competition to test insurance work, then keep the recruiting process separate
A strong submission can tell you whether you enjoy insurance problem framing, risk analysis and explaining a solution to professional reviewers. That makes the Challenge useful before actuarial, underwriting, risk, finance or insurance-analytics recruiting, even though participation is not an internship application.
AM Best separately advertises an Analytical Development Program for college graduates in finance, accounting, economics and math. Its Associate Analyst work includes insurance credit analysis, data analysis and industry research at the company’s Oldwick, New Jersey headquarters. That is a later employment route, not an automatic next step from the Student Challenge.
Do not stop your internship search while waiting for October 30 results. Submit the competition entry, preserve the work product, and continue applying to insurance, actuarial, underwriting, finance and risk roles. If you become a finalist, update applications with the new externally judged result.