CPCU Curriculum Gets Major Change
NU Online News Service, April 4, 9:56 a.m. EST?The American Institute for CPCU in Malvern, Pa. said it has completed a big revamping of the 60-year-old Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter professional designation program to add more on financial services.
It said starting in the summer of 2002, the program will:
? Require students to concentrate in either commercial or personal insurance.
? Have an enhanced financial services focus with the introduction of a new Financial Services Institutions course and a new Personal Financial Planning course.
? Consist of eight, rather than ten, courses and national examinations.
In addition, holders of law degrees will not be required to study the course on the legal environment of risk management and insurance and students with a Masters in Business Administration will get a waiver from the business and financial analysis course.
In addition to passing the eight national exams, candidates for the CPCU designation must meet the American Institute's ethics and industry experience requirements, just as they did under the old program.
Terrie E. Troxel, the Institute president and chief executive officer said the changed curriculum is based on extensive market research and discussions with senior industry leaders.
Mr. Troxel said the changes were needed to reflect a new marketplace, specialization, a global economy, the convergence of property-casualty insurance with financial services, and the growth of the alternative risk transfer market.
Students may take the courses and exams in any order. The first exams for the new courses will be given in the Feb. 15-Mar. 15, 2003, testing window.
James J. Markham, the American Institute's senior vice president in charge of curriculum, said: "Our structuring the new CPCU program along commercial and personal lines recognizes that most people work in one of these two major areas of specialization in the property-casualty business.
"Our addition of the Financial Services Institutions course and the Personal Financial Planning course reflects the blurring of lines between insurance and financial services in business today. These changes require CPCU candidates to develop a more comprehensive knowledge of how risk management and insurance fit into the total financial needs of their customers."
This is a transitional year for students already involved in the CPCU program, according to Mr. Markham. "Students who take [and pass] their last exam in our May-June 2002 testing window will complete under the current CPCU curriculum and attend our conferment ceremony in Orlando in October," he said.
"All other CPCU candidates–and students starting the program–will earn the designation under the new eight-part curriculum. We will continue to offer CPCU courses 1 – 9 through the end of this year. All of them will earn credit under the new curriculum," Mr. Markham explained.
More detail on the new eight-part curriculum can be obtained at the American Institute's Web site, www.aicpcu.org, calling 800-644-2101, telexing 610-640-9576 or e-mailing cserv@cpcuiia.org .
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