The Importance of Being Educated

At a recent insurance symposium held at Seneca College in Toronto, it was encouraging to see the number of new entrants coming into this industry. It was also refreshing to see that these new entrants view the completion of the Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation as a natural pathway for entry into the property and casualty insurance sector. The CIP signals a commitment to the insurance profession. It also represents an accomplishment and expertise in a selected career choice.

Participants in the symposium asked if taking CIP courses would help them gain employment in the property and casualty insurance sector. To answer this question, let’s look at the recent January 2012 Principles and Practice course at Seneca College: four students in a class of 15 were hired by The Dominion, Travelers, Desjardins and Cunningham Lindsey. All of these students were new to the industry and entered the CIP program to help them prepare for their insurance career.

The Insurance Institute of Canada (IIC), which administers the CIP Program, and various colleges such as Seneca and others have all contributed in making a formal insurance education the norm today. Colleges such as Seneca should be commended for designing business programs that allow students to earn credits toward their CIP designation.

Industry initiatives such as combining the CIP with a business diploma, in addition to the IIC’s efforts to go to schools and promote the CIP, have proven to be successful. These efforts to help recruit new members to the industry should be commended. No longer will it be the norm, as it was many years ago, for people to fall haphazardly into the insurance industry. Today, we see new entrants making a conscious decision to embark on a career within the insurance insurance.

Having said that, the industry needs to encourage more people who are already working within the property and casualty industry to pursue a CIP designation. The CIP designation prepares current and prospective employees to manage the challenges of a demanding risk management and insurance marketplace with confidence and professionalism. Having a CIP-designated employee is a benefit for the employer, and the designation will also help the employee from a career perspective.

A person’s work experience should no longer be the sole foundation for gaining entry into or sustaining an insurance career. Employers should continue to encourage all new and existing employees to pursue a CIP designation.

The educational programs upon which the CIP designation is based serve an important need. CIP courses provide insurance professionals with knowledge about insurance industry practices in areas as broad as administration, marketing and underwriting.

Other professional industries require that their employees have a professional designation, and the insurance industry should be no different. Whether you are selling insurance, doing an inspection, independently managing a claim on behalf of a company or underwriting/ managing a claim within a company, a CIP designation is essential.

Today’s insurance consumer is much more educated about the insurance process. A recent interim report by Ontario’s Auto Insurance Anti-Fraud Task Force includes a recommendation for more public education. The task force realizes the entire industry needs to make greater efforts to help educate and engage the consumer in a better understanding of insurance. In Ontario, this education should not be left solely to organizations such as the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario and the Insurance Bureau of Canada, which are working with the task force. This education needs to be delivered by every single person working within the property and casualty insurance sector.

REMAIN ON MESSAGE

The message is only as effective as the messengers who are delivering it. If you are working within the insurance industry, you are the messenger. This is true whether you are working in administration, underwriting, claims, the broker channel, the direct agent distribution channel, the file clerk pool, IT, accounting, call centers, etc.

Our industry is concerned about risk. We can help mitigate our own risk by having people working in this sector obtain the professional designation. CIP courses are practical and encompass all aspects of the contemporary business process of insurance, including underwriting, claims, risk management, fraud detection, specialty underwriting, business process accounting and reconciliation, to name a few.

It is becoming evident that the property and casualty industry is diverse. It includes wide-ranging support services provided by contractors, rehabilitation companies, IT companies and others. People in these service industries also work on their CIP designation.

For example, if you are working in an auto repair facility, a claims course can help an employee understand how a claim gets assigned during a first notice of loss. If you are working for an IT company as a business analyst, CIP courses can help define a business requirement for clients who may have reinsurance or facility reporting. If you are working in the rehabilitation industry, achieving a CIP designation will increase your knowledge about the entire process of applying for accident benefits coverage in the event of a vehicle collision.

In a recent Principles and Practice course at Seneca College, an auto accident injury victim was taking the course to understand the claims process better. In January, in the most recent Principles and Practice course at the college, one-third of the students were currently working in peripheral industries supported by the insurance sector, another third were looking to enter the industry, and the remaining third were new to the industry.