Insurance professional designations and degrees?

Question

I am 22 years old, still in college, but will be completing my BA either dec 2012 or may 2013. I do not have insurance work experience however I have been studying to get my life & health insurance license. and soon after I will study for my p&c license. I really do not know what I want to do in the insurance industry though, I would like to become a risk manager but from my understanding you need to have many years of experience in insurance. I think I want to do claims, underwriting, or loss control. But I do not know which category(life/health, auto, marine, etc).

What insurance professional designations should I seek to obtain? I am not sure if I should major in general business or insurance & risk management(which is a new program at my university, they also allow student to take course to obtain pro. designations and internships)? Everyone keeps telling me that a general business degree will look bad on the resume no matter how many insurance courses I take in school. What do you think? If I would like to go into the insurance industry, will a general business degree look less impressive than an insurance & risk management degree? Or does it depend on what I want to do in insurance?

Answer 1

If you want to get into risk management....then you would go after the risk management degree.



The finance courses are not "wasted" you still learned something and have the knowledge.



According to your theory, it's better to get the degree that is not best suited for your ultimate goal (getting into risk management) because a couple of courses don't apply to that major.



However, if you want to get some insurance designations, you would check out the AICPCU.



The first one is the AINS. This is pretty basic insurance stuff. You would study at home and sit for the exams at a testing center.



Once you finish that - you would do AIC. This is the Associate in Claims designation. It has 4 courses in it. But I think they only require you do 3 to earn this one. Again, self study and sit for the exam. This one is not too bad either.



The big one is the CPCU (Charted Property and Casualty Underwriter) This is 9 courses. They are more difficult then the other 2. Most of these exams are essay and 2 of them are financial. This one usually take people a couple of years to complete.



There are a lot more you can do...but if you want to get into claims or risk management, these are good ones to start with. http://www.aicpcu.org/

Answer 2

Degrees In Insurance

Answer 3

I think the CLU and CPCU are the strongest designations to have.



I don't think your college degree will matter too much, as long as you have one.

Answer 4

you should work with a firm.