Agents Warned To Avoid CE Mills For Training

"During the dot-com revolution, CE providers were growing on the Internet, but unfortunately, there were some questions as to whether they were providing real education benefits," he noted. "States have cracked down on these questionable providers."

"We are calling them CE mills," said Madelyn H. Flannagan, vice president of research and education for the Alexandria, Va.-based Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. "If you can go online and in five minutes, for $25, take a test and get three hours of CE, nobody is benefiting from that. The industry is just getting a tainted name, and that is nothing any of us want to be a part of."

The fallout, however, has added value for agents taking online courses for CE credits when they are approved by the state, they mean something. "Now, those CE credits are reviewed and approved by the states, and they know they will be of value to the agency," Mr. Thomas said.

"We want the agent to walk away with some new skill or knowledge," added Ms. Flannagan. "It's not going to take five minutes; it's going to take three or four hours. If you want those hours of CE, you have to do the work."

Although agents can be assured that the courses they are taking are of value, the next challenge is fitting the classes into their schedule. Traditional courses taught in a classroom setting with a test at the end of the period are no longer acceptable to busy producers.

"We are changing our delivery system to meet producers' needs," noted Mr. Thomas. "They are coming back and telling us, We like the content, but the format is not the best to meet their needs."

Producers are often looking to meet dueling deadlines for their production quotas and for their CE credit requirements, he said. This means they need to get their education in a short period, usually in a few days, and take a short exam at the end.

In 2002, CPCU and the Insurance Institute began meeting demands with the Accredited Advisor and Insurance Program, delivered in nine short segments of two days each, with a short exam at the end of each session.

"It has proven to be wildly popular with the agent market," Mr. Thomas noted, adding that the compression of the courses has not diminished their value.

"[The insurance students] said they need their education in shorter, manageable chunks in just-in-time courses," observed Mr. Thomas. "We now deliver the information in a relatively short time frame."

These intensive sessions deliver knowledge that the agents can put to work "first thing on Monday after taking their course on Thursday and Friday," he said.

Another popular method involves tailoring education courses to an individual business, he explained. The agency takes Programs in General Insurance which can lead to Insurance Institute of America designations and customizes it with specific company content.

A major advantage is that this allows students to take an exam for such designations as Accredited Adviser in Insurance, or Associate in Insurance Services, while also giving the instructor the opportunity to demonstrate how the company's own forms and procedures apply.

The designations require an examination. Completion of the exam also allows for a producer to apply for CE hours.

It is online courses, however, that are offering the greatest flexibility for the agent community.

Mr. Thomas noted that Web courses appeal to people in remote areas, as well as to those who are busy with family issues. Another audience that "we did not expect to capture is traveling people. It is hard for them to commit to be at a certain place at a certain time. They need and like online courses," he said.

The online instruction, which is a typical semester-length course, has an online instructor, supplemental material, access to ask questions of the instructor, and a bulletin board for questions and answers. The instructor also gives a mini-quiz during the course of the program and interactive exercises. Classes are limited to 20 students.

Another improvement is that the software has been upgraded since online instruction's inception in 1999. "All the students said it was terrible the software was clunky we use a much better version today," Mr. Thomas said.

The same advances can be found at the IIABA's Virtual University, the association's online learning facility. "There was a time when people felt [with an online course], I can't do this. I'm not smart enough to do this. I won't be able to keep up with this,'" he said.

Now, because of new software and other advances, online courses have become much more intuitive, observed Ms. Flannagan. "People realize ?I can do this, and it?s not so bad.? And they don't have to be gone from the office for three days."

The Virtual University has grown in its offerings along with the topics offered. Agents can learn about experience rating modifications, workers' compensation experience modification, and how to do business-income calculations. These are subjects, Ms. Flannagan noted, that can be very dry in the classroom but translate well to the online experience. Students can also benefit from tailoring the material to their own pace of learning.

"They can take a test once and review it again later if they feel they didn't get it the first time," she said.

An increasing demand from the agent community that IIABA is looking to fill is requests for sales courses. Not all carriers offer such training, she noted, and agencies find that they don't have the time or ability to teach basic sales skills to new producers.

The courses, one of which offers an Associate in Production accreditation certificate, is a 12-day sales training course spread over 12 months, which covers the basics. The courses can range from closing a sale to the correct fork to use during a business luncheon.

"Some kids come out of college and are not sure of those things," Ms. Flannagan explained. "There is a lack of time in agencies for mentoring. With all the acquisitions and mergers, an agency owner finds he has more business, but he has to maintain that book of business," sometimes at the expense of mentoring.

For those going through the AIP program, a personality test administered in the beginning assesses an individual's aptitude for sales. She said there have been instances when the test revealed a student was not cut out for sales.

The online program, in effect in a few states that don't offer a program, is mainly through the efforts of Lisa Harrington, vice president of education for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. The program began in Florida late last year with a national sales training program.

Classes are kept to 15 students and tuition runs about $3,000. Instruction is tailored to the individual, and demand has been such that it could be expanded to two groups next year.

She added that IIABA is not alone in answering the call for sales education and there are other professional developers, such as The Wedge Group, who are answering the call with sales development programs.

Another education demand is from support staff. For them, Ms. Flannagan said, there is ACSR (Accredited Customer Service Representative) for those who want to gain more professional skills in agency management. Training includes areas such as personal lines, commercial lines, life and health insurance, ethics, negotiations, and errors and omissions.

The courses are a stepping stone for those who "want to move up, are ambitious and see opportunity," she suggested.

Property-casualty agents are beginning to ask for help with training for financial services education not just life and health insurance, but also annuities and similar investment products and services.

The IIABA is offering a new designation AFSR, Accredited Financial Services Representative which is an entry-level designation for new producers and CSRs. Ms. Flannagan predicted that this area would see great growth.

"Designations are important to folks, but it also has to have some meaning behind it," Ms. Flannagan observed. "We want those letters behind their name to mean something to their customers and their contemporaries in their office. You should be proud to wear it behind your name."

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, June 25, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.