(March 9) – The Life Education Committee of the Canadian Insurance Self-Regulatory Organization has released its final recommendations regarding new, pre-licensing education for life insurance agents.
Industry comment was collected on the initial report that was released on November 18, 1999. The final report retains most of the original recommendations, including the introduction of a single-step licensing process, the introduction of formal education and pre-licensing training course prerequisites, an enhanced qualifying examination, and more options for program delivery.
CISRO has recognized a need to make its courses comparable with those offered elsewhere in the financial sector. It recommends that the curriculum development process should involve “reasonable attempts to design modules in a manner that allows for equivalency assessments with other financial services sector courses.”
It has also recognized the need for flexibility in training, and so in this report it moves away from classroom-based education to focus on distance learning. CISRO has dumped the suggestion that new agents would be required to complete a 270-hour, classroom-based pre-licensing course
The next step is to engage educational professionals to develop the detailed curriculum. Joanne Abram, chair of the Life Education Committee, said, “I was particularly pleased with the thoughtful and constructive feedback that we received from industry stakeholders across Canada. The recommendations have been revised to reflect industry suggestions.”
-IE Staff