The CPCU - Not Just For Underwriters Anymore

In the fall of 1986, I was managing a small suburban car rental office outside of Washington, DC. Around that time, my boss came by and offered me another position as district operations manager, an opportunity I immediately accepted. There was a catch, though. I had to take over the management of claims.

No way, I thought. Who would want to do such a thankless job? But since the other position was tied to the claims job, I reluctantly accepted.

Over the next five years, the company grew by over 300%, and I became the Director of Risk Management in April 1989, a position I held until January 2002. Along the way, I received the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation (1996), which provided the educational foundation for this profession that I had not chosen, but had chosen me.

To be completely honest, I would probably still be at that job if not for the events which unfolded after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Due to a variety of circumstances, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy less than three months after the attacks. I decided it was time for a change. At 43 years old, this risk manager thing wasn’t going anywhere.

So I took a job selling cars, and supplemented this doing some risk management consulting. The problem with car sales is that it is not very family friendly, and with two small girls at home and a wife with a chronic illness, I decided to quit car sales and go home and take care of my family. I figured I’d just go get another risk manager’s job. Very few companies, though, were willing to take a chance on a risk manager with experience in only one industry. There was also this recession thing going on.

After about six months of doing odd jobs, substitute teaching, and some consulting, I went back to car sales, since we needed the job for the health insurance. I continued to look, and in May, 2003, I was offered a position at Valcourt Building Services. This company had been growing very rapidly, and had decided to commit resources to their insurance program in the hope of controlling their costs.

In a little over 18 months, I was able to facilitate significant savings in insurance. I also assisted in the implementation of a comprehensive safety program that complemented the insurance program and led to more savings.

This is where the CPCU journey begins.

In January 2005, during my review process, I asked permission to apply for a broker’s license, since the company had thoughts of purchasing an insurance agency. Since their plans had changed, and a broker’s license would be of little value to the company, my boss asked if there was anything else I would be interested in studying.

It was then that I mentioned the CPCU, and I explained that it was a series of eight courses, and generally takes two to five years to complete. He told me to go ahead and get started.

Well, I passed the first test on February 28, 2005, and I guess I got on a little bit of a roll, because I passed the eighth and final test on August 22, 2005. This was a total of 176 days from start to finish, or an average of one part every 22 days. I received my designation letter on September 6, 2005.

I also had a little trouble decompressing from this furious pace, so I also passed the Associate in Insurance Services (AIS) and the Associate in Risk Management for Public Entities (ARM-P) programs before the end of 2005. During this time, I also wrote four articles for publication in RM Magazine, the premier publication in the risk management discipline. A fifth article was published in June 2006.

I have also written a book Hide! Here Come The Insurance Guy™ A Practical Guide to Understanding Business Insurance and Risk Management. The book is written from the viewpoint of the business insurance consumer, and offers practical strategies and practices that serve to educate those who want to reduce the cost of their insurance programs. The book was published in June 2006 and has been overwhelmingly well received.

According to the CPCU Society statistics, only 2% of its membership are risk managers, 1.7% characterize their job function as “Risk Management/Buyer” and only 0.5% work in non-insurance industry related organizations. Achieving the CPCU designation affords me a unique perspective on the insurance industry; a credentialed insurance professional who does not work in the insurance industry.

To this end, I have also started my own risk management consulting practice. The Vassar Group, LLC, is being launched in conjunction with the publication of the book. For every credentialed risk manager out there in business, there are probably nine or ten professionals like me, who came into the discipline quite by accident. The book as well as the business will help them to fill in the gaps, providing practical, cost-effective solutions to their risk management and insurance needs.

Achieving the CPCU has given me the confidence to pursue these other avenues. I have also found that adding this designation has served as an introduction to contacts I would not has access to but for the CPCU. The attainment of the CPCU designation commands instant respect among those in the insurance industry.

Attaining the CPCU designation also gave me the unique perspective of how the insurance industry operates. As a risk manager, one must effectively communicate to those in both the back room and the boardroom. Seeking support for a program at the executive level and then communicating the program to the rest of the organization once consensus is reached can be a daunting task to the risk management professional. The respect that the CPCU affords me in both the corporate and insurance arenas has given me the additional strength necessary to complement and enhance our already successful risk and insurance programs.

I want to encourage everyone in the industry, both on the buying side and the production side, to pursue the CPCU designation. For those of you who are thinking about it, get yourself started. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how approachable most of the subject matter is to the insurance professional. For those of you in the middle of your studies, take heart. You will do it, and it will be well worth it.

People ask me how I could possibly pass these courses in six months, especially those who know that I have never been much of a student. There is only one plausible answer I can give them:

It’s what I do.

Four years ago I was selling cars. My career path was unsettled at best. Now, with the help of the CPCU designation, I am truly excited about what the future holds for me. It has given me the education and the confidence to pursue a new path and the field is now wide open.