Insurance is a knowledge-based business.

Thanks to your Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation, you have a solid technical know-how of Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry.

But many CIP grads like to challenge themselves further and gain a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of the p&c business. That’s why insurance professionals like Kelly O’Keefe and Jacob Wagner have taken the plunge to become FCIPs.

O’Keefe is a section manager of accident benefits at Desjardins General Insurance Group. Wagner is an executive underwriter in aviation at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Americas. Both will be panelists in our national complimentary webinar, Taking the Plunge, on Tuesday, May 16 at 1 pm EDT.

O’Keefe and Wagner will talk about how the Institute’s FCIP designation can help you develop yourself personally and professionally. Plus, Bob Tisdale, president and chief operating officer of Pembridge Insurance Company, offers his insights as a leading insurance executive on the benefits of an education beyond your CIP.

Offered online, the FCIP program starts with five courses covering strategy, leadership, finance, risk management and emerging issues. The sixth and final course is a ‘Capstone’ project, in which you apply everything you learn to lead a highly relevant research or business project at your workplace. 

O’Keefe says she was initially unsure about the online structure of the FCIP program. She had been out of school for 15 years, and was used to doing independent study as a means of professional development.

But with the support of her company’s leadership, she signed up for the FCIP. Having completed the first four courses of the program, she has learned a great deal from the online group work and communication with colleagues from across the country.

“I had to reach out to executives, to people on the Desjardins banking side,” said O’Keefe, whose expertise lies mainly in the claims side of the business. “I’ve learned from conversations I’ve had with other class participants who represent a wide range of areas, experiences, and tenure. There are people from all different aspects of the industry in the FCIP program. It’s been really fascinating to talk to them and learn from them.”

Wagner has just finished his FCIP course work. He came up with a successful growth strategy for his company’s aviation line based on online discussions with his fellow FCIP candidates, as well as the concepts he learned in the course materials.

“The strategy course was tremendously applicable to the [Capstone] project I was doing, because I was able to take those theories, the data we have in the marketplace, and those discussions with other FCIP candidates, and combine all of those things to come up with a strategy,” said Wagner. “And so far I feel that strategy has been successful. That was the coolest thing to see, applying what you’ve learned.”

Please see the Institute’s website for more information about the FCIP program.