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Continuing Education
- Qualifying Hours for Full Membership

Canadian Institute of Underwriters:

In order to obtain or maintain your status as a Full Member of the CIU, you must complete 15 hours of continuing education each year. Excess hours cannot be carried forward to future years.

During the annual membership drive, in addition to completing your renewal form you will be asked to confirm, by signature, that you have completed your 15 hours of continuing education. It is not necessary to provide details of your hours at this time.

It is the responsibility of the member to maintain a record of accumulated hours as credit slips will not be issued by the qualifying venues. A log sheet is attached for use at your discretion. It can also be detached for use on your own desktop.

While the accumulation of qualifying hours is based on the honor system, the CIU Board of Directors will conduct a random audit each year. If chosen for the annual audit, you will be asked to provide the details of your qualifying hours within 30 days of the request. For this reason, you should maintain your log sheet for a minimum of one year, following the period that the log actually covers. For example, if your log sheet covers the period from January 1 to December 31 of a given year you should maintain your log sheet until December 31 of the year following.

The attached list of educational pursuits should not be considered exhaustive. It is designed to represent the types of qualifying education that are acceptable to the CIU for continuing educational credit hours.

To attain 15 hours of educational credit an underwriting professional may accumulate credits from the following sources:

  • Formal corporate sponsored underwriting education will count toward educational credits. Credit granted is a straight hour for hour of educational material. The sponsored training may be internal i.e. lectures from internal underwriting or related field specialists or it may be external such as an educational program by an underwriting service organization.
  • Industry related seminars or conferences: each industry related seminar or conference counts as 6 hours of credit for each full day of attendance. (Each ½ day of attendance will count as 3 hours.)

Examples of industry related conferences and seminars: annual meetings of the CIU, AQTV or AHOU and educational seminars sponsored by those organizations such as the CIU Educational Seminar and the ALU Seminar Series.

Also included in the above grouping of industry related events are: The International Underwriting Congress, Society of Actuaries seminars, Medical Directors conferences such as CLIMOA, CADU and related health and disability seminars.

  • Attendance at local and regional underwriting meetings where there is an educational portion or lecture will count as educational credit hours based on the length of the lecture or formal professional discussion.

These last three sources will qualify for the full 15 hour credit:

  • Industry related study such as passing an exam toward the completion of the following designations: FLMI, CLU, ChFC, FLHC, ICA, HIAA, RHU, FALU etc.
  • Researching and writing an original article published in an industry journal (i.e. On The Risk), writing a project paper, developing a new curriculum chapter for ALU or delivering a lecture.
  • Participation in an underwriting organization that produces educational development to the industry i.e. participation on a seminar executive group, research study group or exam development with the ALU Education Committee.

Additional educational pursuits may qualify; their qualification may be confirmed by contacting the Membership Director of Canadian Institute of Underwriters.

FAQ About Continuing Education

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