Attendees of this year's ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum will have plenty of opportunity—both prior to and after the conference—to take advantage of educational activities to learn something more about the standards system and the industry, plus obtain necessary educational credit for professional designations.
Today, for example, the standard's association is offering a continuing-education credit program called the ACORD Certified Expert (ACE) program, according to ACORD's chief learning officer, Beth Grossman.
It is a fairly new program, Grossman says, and while it may be geared toward the technical professionals, there are other courses available for those with varying professional-designation interests.
The ACE program covers three major markets of insurance: life and annuity, property and casualty, and reinsurance. It is designed to teach professionals about the latest updates and give all students an opportunity to learn the latest information about standards.
Grossman says that for attendees who have received their certification, the classes provide an opportunity to earn the continuing-education components they need to retain their ACE designations.
She notes that the first graduating class completed the ACE program in May of 2010. This is the first time that the graduates are being required to take a continuing-education program to keep their ACE designation.
She explains that the ACORD standards are updated twice a year based on maintenance requests from the industry to make changes and enhancements to the standards. The continuing education will focus on these changes in the standards that will affect existing or new implementations.
She notes that throughout the pre-conference day, people can come and take ACE advanced courses anytime between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The ACE courses being offered today are:
• 9 a.m.-10:15 a.m.: ACE Continuing Education: Life & Annuity: focuses on the latest updates to ACORD's life and annuity standard.
• 10:30 a.m.-11:45 a.m.: ACE Continuing Education: Property & Casualty: focuses on the latest updates to ACORD's property and casualty standard.
• 1 p.m.-2:15 p.m. ACE Continuing Education: Reinsurance: focuses on the latest updates to ACORD's reinsurance standard.
• 9 a.m.-2 p.m.: ACORD Certified Expert Testing: This is your chance to take the ACORD Certified Expert examinations for life and annuity, property and casualty, and reinsurance. To take exams tomorrow or for any questions, contact ace@acord.org.
While there are the technical elements to today's programs, there are also sessions of a more general interest, Grossman says.
"It is primarily ACORD standards implementation, but we have an insurance component to work with as well," says Grossman, noting that the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, the Insurance Institute of America, and LOMA are also providing courses that will meet their certification and education requirements.
She notes that the institutes are offering a pre-conference educational session today on "The Foundations of P&C Insurance."
That session is being held from noon to 1 p.m. Whether you are interested in obtaining your ACE designation, CPCU designation or just want to learn more about the insurance industry, the course is aimed at providing a "strong P&C information foundation to do your job better," says Grossman.
The institutes will provide attendees with the knowledge they need to accomplish this goal. The course provides "the overall awareness of the insurance industry needed to be able to knowledgably interact with insurance professionals"—and is "a great step ahead to either an ACE or CPCU designation," according to Grossman.
There is another series of education sessions today concerning ACORD models that the industry builds its content management around.
From 9 to 11 a.m., a session titled "Information Model 2.0" focuses on the content model, its design principles and patterns, and how to navigate the content.
Then from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. comes a session on "Component Model 1.0," which provides a set of reusable components for insurance-data services. Attendees will learn about the basic design, related principles and current status.
In the afternoon, from 2 to 3 p.m. there is a session on "Capability Model 2.x: Use Case Panel" where attendees will learn about the ACORD Framework Capability model that defines a baseline for an insurance company's capabilities and discover the new content added in 2011. During this session, attendees will hear from a panel of individuals representing organizations that have used the model or plan to do so.
Grossman calls it "the hottest new area of development in ACORD standards. Everybody wants education on it."
She said the intent is to "really drill down to show examples of the components of the model-like parties, roles and relationships. The technology-minded people are really going to want to go to" those sessions.
Worth noting, Grossman says, is a program called "The Power of Change"—an ACORD program being taught by two consultants, Gloria Willis and Jason Hofener, who are experts on this topic.
"The Power of Change" (1 to 3 p.m. today) is a methodology primarily for helping insurance agencies deal with change management, she says. It is a program that the consultants have been teaching for years—and it is a lot of fun, according to Grossman. It will help agencies train their staff on how to think strategically, tactically and creatively.
Outside of the ACORD educational sessions there are two others of general interest to attendees.
The AUGIE group, which is a property/casualty initiative that drives implementation of ACORD standards, will meet from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. today. The meeting is open to all attendees. The group's focus is on commercial-lines download and real-time issues.
Grossman says that following the conference, on Wednesday, May 25, LOMA will offer a full-day program titled "LOMA Insurance Immersion"—a one-day, abridged version of their immersion class offering hands-on instruction that "accelerates the delivery of industry-specific knowledge essential to succeeding in the life insurance and annuities environment." The session, she says, will also provide credit for the insurance requirement for the ACE program.
"It is kind of a nice combination," she notes. "It's a pretty exciting addition."
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