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The Insurance Institute of Canada

The Insurance Institute of Canada is a professional, not-for-profit organization with its roots dating back to 1899. It was created for the purpose of providing professional development for men and women employed in the Canadian property and casualty insurance industry.

Based in Toronto, Canada, The Insurance Institute of Canada is the umbrella organization for a network of 19 institutes and chapters across Canada. It is connected globally with like institutes around the world through the Institute for Global Insurance Education.

It is a professional educator, examining body and publishing house. It develops and administers licensing exams, and it represents every employment sector of the property & casualty insurance business – including insurers, reinsurers, underwriters, brokers, independent adjusters, plus others in related financial services.

The Insurance Institute offers two formal designation programs for insurance professionals, including the Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) and the Fellow Chartered Insurance Professional (FCIP). These designations serve as qualification for employment and promotional opportunities required by many industry employers.

The Insurance Institutes, at both the national and local level, work with provincial and territorial regulators to align educational offerings with regulatory licensing regimes.

To promote personal and career development, the institutes and chapters organize networking opportunities in addition to events and seminars.

Membership

Membership in the Insurance Institute of Canada is made up of a variety of types of people and currently stands in excess of 39,000. Members can be students or graduates of the CIP or FCIP designation programs, or they can be regular members engaged in other forms of professional development such as certificate programs.

Mandate

The Insurance Institute offers programs in each of the following three areas – Professional Development and Designations, Networking and Career Development, and Insights and Resources.

Professional Development and Designations

Professional development and designation programs can be divided into four distinct areas: professional designations, certificate programs, insurance licensing & continuing education (CE) credits and professional development. A brief summary of each area is as follows:

Professional Designations

Professional development includes formal education programs leading to CIP and FCIP designations via classroom, distance and web-based learning. The Insurance Institute has an active student body of approximately 20,000 people. In partnership with several community colleges and universities across Canada, its CIP program is used to educate full-time students whose studies include property and casualty insurance.

Certificate Programs

Certificate programs include a General Insurance Essentials (GIE) Program, used for licensing purposes in several different provinces, and a Rehabilitation Benefits Administration Program. A Life Licence Qualification Program (LLQP) leads to a provincial life insurance license as well as an Accident and Sickness License. The Insurance Institute has also created the Instructor Certification Program (ICP), designed to help instructors deliver information to CIP students in a standardized way across the country.

Insurance Licensing & CE Credits

Licensing and continuing education (CE) credits are offered to insurance agents and brokers, independent claims adjusters and life agents.

Professional Development

These programs include non-designation courses and seminars, both In-class and virtual. They deal with subject areas such as insurance and technical knowledge, business and management, as well as interpersonal and communications skills.

Networking and Career Development

The Insurance Institute offers networking and career development programs.

Networking

The CIP Society provides for the professional needs of more than 17,000 graduates of the CIP and FCIP programs. The division provides networking and social programs for CIP Society members.

Career Development

Career Connections maintains an insurance presence in secondary and post-secondary schools, educating young adults about the fundamental concepts of insurance and career opportunities available in the p&c insurance industry.

Insight and Resources

The Insurance Institute authors a number of academic resources for use by the Canadian property and casualty industry. These resources include Demographic Research reports, annual reports and newsletters, industry surveys and research, instructor exchanges, legal briefs, CIP and FCIP textbooks.

Activities

The Insurance Institute’s activities are administered by three separate divisions – The Academic Division, Graduate Division and Career Connections.

• The Academic Division offers formal education programs leading to CIP and FCIP designations. It also offers certificate programs such as the GIE Program, the Rehabilitation Benefits Administration Program, the LLQP, and the ICP.

• The Graduate Division administers the CIP Society.

• The Career Connections Division is responsible for promotion and recruitment of youth into the insurance industry.

Standards

All Insurance Institute courses and programs are designed to meet high standards. Graduates abide by a Code of Ethics designed to maintain professional practice and conduct. As a designation-granting institution, the Insurance Institute holds qualifying examinations and elects graduates as CIPs and FCIPs.

Corporate Governance

The Insurance Institute Board of Governors meets once annually to receive reports, address policy issues and approve finances for the organization. It includes executives from major insurance employers across Canada together with representatives of local institute councils. Board members are elected to represent members of local institutes and chapters, as well as senior industry leadership.

The Executive Committee is the senior decision-making body within the Board of Governors. It also oversees its four sub-committees (Finance, Nominations, Pension and Compensation).

Involvement in the Insurance Community

The Insurance Institute relies heavily on its strong network of volunteers across the country. Volunteers play an integral role in the support, development and execution of Institute initiatives and activities throughout the year. The Insurance Institute is a platinum sponsor of the National Insurance Conference of Canada. Other philanthropic commitments include: the Women in Insurance Cancer Crusade event, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association and the Canadian Association of Insurance Women.

National Education Week, which the Insurance Institute created in 2009, raises awareness among members and celebrates education within the Canadian insurance industry. Normally held the last week of February, special events, seminars and networking opportunities take place within each institute and chapter, often organized with national subscribing companies.

Institute History

1899 – John B. Laidlaw, manager of the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society in Canada, made the call to fellow insurance managers in the country to create an insurance institute in Canada along the lines of institutes being formed in Great Britain in the late 1870s. Two hundred and thirty industry representatives responded, giving birth to the Insurance Institute of Toronto.

1900 – The Insurance Institute of Montreal formed.

1920s – The Insurance Institute of British Columbia and the Insurance Institute of Winnipeg were established.

1931 – President of the Insurance Institute of Toronto, W.H. Burgess, first raised the idea of a national institute.

1947 – The Insurance Institute of Toronto became the Insurance Institute of Ontario.

1952 – All institutes joined in association with The Insurance Institute of Canada to establish a uniform standard of insurance education and examinations. The first president of the Insurance Institute, Norman G. Bethune, outlined the following three major objectives for the organization in the President’s Address to The First Annual Meeting of the Insurance Institute of Canada:

1) The standardization of insurance education across Canada, with a uniform syllabus, uniform examinations, and consequently equal standing for all graduates regardless of education.
2) A sound and equitable basis of company support of Insurance Institute work.
3) To provide means of insurance education in other parts of Canada where it is needed.

As initially stated in the resolutions establishing The Insurance Institute of Canada, the purpose of the organization was “to co-operate with all organisations, both insurance and educational, in the interests of insurance education, all to the end that the service of the business to the insuring public and to Canada generally will be maintained and enhanced, and the efficiency, progress and general development of the business will be promoted.” A contemporary example of co-operating with other industry organizations to further insurance education can be found on the website of the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), a trade organization for Canada’s home, auto and business insurers.

1998 – The CIP Society was officially sanctioned and the new designations were approved.

2002 – 50th anniversary celebration for the Insurance Institute.

2013 – The Insurance Institute continues to set the syllabus of p&c insurance studies, produces the appropriate Canadian texts, conducts distance-learning courses, holds national examinations and elects graduates.