Statutorily mandated insurance continuing education and a lack of commitment to insurance training have combined to trigger the end of the true insurance professional. To be considered a “professional” in today’s insurance environment requires only the completion of a pre-licensing class or training school and the ability to endure annual continuing education classes. Participants are not required to prove any learning occurred nor must they be able to apply the information; the sole requisite is to stay awake and feign attention for a certain number of hours. This does not a professional make.

A “profession” is a calling that requires specialized knowledge, has legal and/or educational barriers to entry, requires the practitioner to be dedicated to the vocation itself and necessitates a commitment to continual study and the increase in applied knowledge with the goal of protecting and/or bettering society. This intimates focused attention on the profession’s depth and details; a passion to be better tomorrow than today; and surrendering to the fact that the well of knowledge is infinitely deep and its waters are not adequately explored shy of ongoing, personal study. Receiving a paycheck is not a requirement of a profession, only the result of being a member of a profession.

True professionals accept the challenges of their calling, dedicating themselves to studying and understanding the industry, the client and the mechanism. An insurance professional is always researching, reading, observing and asking questions toward the goal of doing and being their best.

Insurance as a Profession

First, is insurance a profession when compared against the above criteria? Each requirement made of a profession is compared to the vocation of insurance:

  • Is specialized knowledge required? Yes. There is a body of concepts, knowledge and language unique to insurance. Understanding it and applying it requires study and experience;
  • Are there legal and/or educational barriers to entry? Yes. To legally practice, agents and brokers must attain enough knowledge to pass required licensing exams. Effective underwriting requires enough training to understand the basic concepts of insurance. Claims people must have a basic understanding of the policy language and how to interpret policy language; and
  • Does insurance protect and/or better society? Yes. Without insurance America would not be able to be what we are or have what we have. Insurance allows for creativity, innovation and the pursuit of the American dream. Without insurance: you could not get a home mortgage, get a loan for or drive a car (in most states), create any new products (self-insuring liability would be too expensive), start a business, hire employees nor do or have anything to which we are accustomed. This is not hyperbole; insurance is integral to this nation and its economy (unless we want to be a state-run, communist country).
 
Although insurance is not a profession in the classical sense; based on the above criteria insurance is a profession. So by virtue of the nature of a profession its ranks should be staffed by committed professionals - at all levels; but here is where the industry is lacking. The occasion to find and work with an insurance professional is disappearing at an increasing rate. Each successive generation sees fewer and fewer professional insurance practitioners who realize the need to focus on the intricacies of insurance nearly to the exclusion of extraneous products, and with the desire to dedicate themselves to understanding all facets of the insurance (pure risk) mechanism. The “how” is more important than the “why.” When you know “why,” the “how” becomes easier – true professionals know this. 
 

Insurance Professionals and Education

Don’t confuse ignorance (lack of knowledge) with lack of professionalism. No one knows it all when he enters the world of insurance, nor will he know it all when he leaves. Professionalism is evidenced by desire and passion. Professionals desire to discover what they don’t know and passionately pursue the information necessary to fill that knowledge gap; not just for the short run, but as a building block for the future.

Neither should a lot of education and/or designations be equated with professionalism. A “CPCU” without the passion to immerse herself in continual study is little better, and maybe not as good as, the newbie who desires to learn what they don’t know, pursue the knowledge and apply it to their client’s needs. Designations will never put a dime in your pocket; but your desire to continually learn so that you can do the best for your client will.

Lest you be confused by the last paragraph, clarification may be in order. Insurance education leading to a designation is absolutely essential or exceptionally useless based on the desire and passion of the participant. Pursuit of a CPCU, ARM, CIC or any other designation or advanced degree is admirable if the reason is the desire to advance yourself as a professional and the profession itself with the ultimate goal of increasing knowledge and helping your clients. Otherwise it’s just fluff that looks good on a resume.

Insurance education for professionals comes in many forms: reading industry magazines, attending forums and association meetings, knowing how to use the Internet for research (i.e.. which sites provide the best information), building a reference library, developing a group of like-minded insurance professionals with whom you can converse and debate on a regular basis and even pursuing designations - with the right motive. Professionals do not ask how many continuing education hours are involved; they don’t care. The question professionals ask when attending a class, lecture or On-line study is, “Will this make me better at what I do?” If the answer is “yes,” then CE is just a bonus; but if there is no CE credit, the professional doesn’t care – it’s about the desire to be the best. Professionals make their good, better; and their better the best through dedicated study.

The Current State of Continuing Education

Continuing insurance education today is passionless and lacking in desire. Many attend only because the law requires it; they have no desire to learn anything new; the completion certificate and the credit hours are the goal. Rare, too, is the continuing education provider who teaches with passion or creativity (they do exist).

Insurance continuing education, as an industry, has pooled at the bottom of the proverbial barrel with low cost providers offering low quality material to non-professionals. This is particularly true of Online CE providers who promise cheap and quick CE credit.

My neighbor and I were discussing online continuing education. She told me her boss earned 12 hours of CE credit in less than an hour. He downloaded the material, went straight to the test and did a key word search to answer the questions. Tell me how this can teach anything. Is this really the direction we want to go?

Professionals make education a priority. Hacks go because it is required.

The Questions of the Day

If required continuing education laws were repealed, would you make it a PRIORITY to attend educational classes every year? If you own the business, would you make it a priority for your employees?

So what, if anything, can be done to return to professionalism, rid the industry of non-professionals and improve education? Please share your thoughts and ideas.