Access to high-quality education programs is a valuable benefit of NAPSLO membership. Since 1990, the Association's education program has evolved from just an initial onsite E&S course to a full suite of programs that are designed to meet the ongoing continuing education needs of member firms and their employees.

Today the education opportunities include six on-site programs and two online programs that are each geared specifically to the surplus lines industry.

NAPSLO's original course, Excess and Surplus Lines (E&S), is a three-day program designed as an introductory offering for insurance professionals with less than five years of surplus lines experience. E&S program students gain a basic understanding of how excess and surplus lines insurance works in the marketplace. NAPSLO Director of Education Randall Jones says E&S students analyze and discuss real-world issues and leave the program with a foundational understanding of the dynamics and relationships between surplus lines brokers and carriers. The E&S program will next be offered June 4-7, 2017.

While no program has any prerequisites and each is designed as a standalone career-development tool, the NAPSLO Marcus Payne Advanced E&S program, offered each fall, is the next step in the NAPSLO education progression for many NAPSLO members.

“Advanced E&S Program participants learn about industry regulatory issues, marketing, the claims process and reinsurance impacts on the specialty insurance industry, in a group setting,” Jones said. “Advanced attendees spend three days learning from industry professionals who have extensive experience. They also hear from a panel of industry executives, who impart real-world expertise in a discussion format.” Both E&S and The Marcus Payne Advanced E&S Programs are held in St. Louis, Mo. The next Advanced E&S Program will be offered Nov. 6-9, 2016.

Education program expanded in 2015

The NAPSLO education program was expanded in 2015 with the introduction of Surplus Lines Management, which is offered in collaboration with Emory University's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta by professors from Emory as well as industry professionals. The program has sold out both years and will be offered again in February 2017.

Joel Cavaness, Education Committee Co-Chair and President, Risk Placement Services Inc., said that Surplus Lines Management was an important addition to the NAPSLO education program because it helps meet a previously undeveloped opportunity to specifically target professionals who have been in the industry for a number of years and have extensive industry experience, but are relatively new to a management role and can benefit from management training that is specific to E&S issues.

The Surplus Lines Consultative Selling and Negotiations program – which is offered in a small group environment and is specifically tailored to real-world E&S transaction situations between wholesalers and retail agents as well as wholesalers and market underwriters, is offered regionally throughout the year.

The Consultative Selling and Negotiations Program is presented in conjunction with Richardson, a leading global sales training and strategy execution company. “Participants in this program learn in a very interactive setting and they leave with an improved sales process,” said Cavaness. “Attendees develop a customer-focused approach and some tools that help them be better prepared for sales calls and they learn how to improve their follow-up and close, as well as specific negotiating tools that can be used when working on surplus lines accounts, which is key.”

The capstone experience in NAPSLO's current education program is the Executive Leadership Summit (ELS). ELS is designed for senior-level executives with extensive experience in the industry and in managing employees. The program is presented at the University of Virginia by Darden School of Business faculty in Charlottesville, Va. ELS attendees enhance their ability to successfully implement strategic thinking, planning and leadership and leverage that in change management at the personal, team and organizational level.

“ELS students are typically experienced and senior-level team members,” Jones said. “We sometimes have the misperception that professionals at that level in their careers have it all figured out, but we hear time and time again that the experience is incredibly impactful for participants and they always report that the shift in thinking that results from the program far exceeds the time investment.” He added that the opportunity to collaborate with other executives during the program also yields great networking opportunities for attendees.

New class in 2016: Effective Sales Coaching

In late 2016 NAPSLO will introduce Effective Sales Coaching to the existing programs. The Association has partnered with Richardson to create a custom-tailored program with the objective that participants gain the skills and strategies to build a coaching culture in their organizations that drives performance.

Harry Johnson, Education Committee Co-Chair and COO, Johnson & Johnson, Inc., said the goal of Effective Sales Coaching is to improve participants' performance around achieving their business' goals. “We think that members who attend will find that they are not only better able to meet their own goals, but also have a better ability to help team members become responsible for their own development,” he noted. “This program is designed to help people assess their current approach to coaching others and then identify their own strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas for improvement.” The first program will be held in Kansas City on Dec. 13, 2016.

In addition to the full slate of on-site programs, NAPSLO offers two online training courses that can be accessed at the NAPSLO website at any time by members. The Surplus Lines Fundamentals course was developed collaboratively by NAPSLO and The Institutes. The course is a primer for anyone interested in learning the basics of how the surplus lines market works. Johnson said that the course is an ideal starting point in training new hires.

The second online course, Surplus Lines Compliance, is designed for professionals with less than two years of compliance job training or experience and covers a variety of material including an overview of surplus lines licensing, diligent search, tax remittance and policy disclosure. This program was recently reformatted with an interactive HTML format, which Jones said allows brokers to interact with the content in a way that reinforces learning while using a modern and fun instructional design.

“NAPSLO subsidizes the cost of these online programs for members and students can elect to earn CE credits in both courses,” Johnson added. “We believe that making these courses easily accessible for members is an important investment in the future of the industry.”

For more information about all the NAPSLO education programs, visit www.napslo.org.

Special Reports /

NAPSLO education program: Learning for all levels

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