Insuring Personal Auto Exposures Welcome Insurance and risk professionals today need learning choices from many sources. As time and economic pressures bear down on everyone, The National Alliance continues to push forward with excellent online programs, carefully designed to fulfill your professional development needs. In the pages that follow, be sure to read and understand the requirements for completing your course. If you have any questions, you may contact us via the link on the bottom navigation bar. I hope you enjoy your journey into online learning. Thank you for choosing a National Alliance online course! William T. Hold, Ph.D., CIC, CPCU, CLU President CISR Insuring Personal Auto Exposures Thank you for choosing the Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR) Insuring Personal Auto course. Our goals are to help you to learn about insuring the personal automobile exposure and to give you the tools to use to assist your customers. Almost everyone has a car or is subject to some of the exposures autos create. This course is about the liability and property exposures created by auto usage and the insurance policies we use to provide insurance for those exposures. Internet Browser Warning This course is designed to work with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or above, with JavaScript enabled. Students using Firefox or Google Chrome will have difficulties with interactive pages and self quizzes. If you need technical help with your browser, please contact the OnLine Help Desk. Copyright 2010. The Society of Certified Insurance Service Representatives, Incorporated. All rights reserved. This material includes copyrighted material of ISO Properties, Inc. with its permission. This course or any part thereof may not be reproduced, copied, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in any information retrieval system without the express written consent of the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research and the Society of CISR. All trademarks and services marks are proprietary to The Society of CISR or its affiliates or licensees. 1
CISR Insuring Personal Auto Exposures Course is one of the five courses required to earn the Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR) designation. The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research gave recognition the first CISR designee in 1987. Today, over 25,000 insurance professionals proudly wear the CISR pin. Classroom CISR courses are one-day courses, with an optional exam at the conclusion of the course. For the online courses, you are allowed 60 days to complete the course and final exam. This offers you the flexibility to study when it is convenient for your busy schedule. Achieving the Designation You achieve the designation by completing five core courses and passing the final exam for each one, earning an achievement seal for each course. With your first successful completion of a CISR course, we will provide you with an online Document of Certification, where each of your achievement seals will be displayed. After you have earned all five, you will be a CISR! Agency Operations: Understanding how agencies operate is essential training for both insurance agency and company personnel. Our experienced CISRs say, every new employee in the agency should take this course! Topics: The Insurance Agency The Insurance Marketplace Communic ation Skills Basics of Risk Management Basics of Financial Management Personal and Commercial Lines: Due Diligence and Account Management Other Account Servicing Claims Processing Professional Responsibilities: Ethical and Legal Behavior Insuring Commercial Property Commercial Property Insurance is one of your business customers greatest concerns. You ll improve your cross selling abilities with up to date knowledge of commercial property coverage, and reduce E & O exposures. This course gives you the skills to address these issues with greater ease and confidence. PA Rev. 06/10 Page 2
Topics: Fundamentals of Commercial Property Insurance Building and Personal Property Coverage Form Causes of Loss Forms Basics of Time Element Insurance Basics of Commercial Inland Marine Insurance Insuring Personal Auto Exposures: After taking this course, you will be able to more effectively advise your customers in the processes of analyzing, obtaining, and modifying their auto policies. Topics: Personal Auto Policy Coverages with Related Vehicles Personal Umbrella Coverages Insuring Personal Residential Property This course gives you the expertise you need to guide your customers through the often complex and confusing process of purchasing homeowners insurance helping them to make decisions that insure their most valuable assets. Topics: Homeowners Policy Coverages Common Homeowners Policy Endorsements Dwe lling Policy Insuring Commercial Casualty Exposures Sharpen your interactions with commercial customers and increase your opportunities to cross sell with the essentials of the ISO CGL. Topics: Essentials of Legal Liability Commercial General Liability Business Auto Policy Workers Compensation PA Rev. 06/10 Page 3
Log On... It's all about you! Your online Document of Certification and other important National Alliance professional education information is in one convenient place on MyPage, including: Contact information CE certificates (download online) Course history Exam results When your next update is due Membership dues status (you can pay dues online) New program offerings View your MyPage on our website, www.thenationalalliance.com/mypage. How to Receive Credit for Insuring Personal Auto To successfully complete this course, you must pass a final examination in the presence of a disinterested third party proctor/monitor. Some states have special requirements for the proctor, so please click on the Proctor Instructions link below. Your proctor/monitor will enter his or her email address to sign in to the exam website. He or she must remain in your presence for the hour of the exam. The proctor/monitor certifies your identity, and that you have completed the exam without outside assistance of any kind. Make sure to use your 60 day timeframe to carefully prepare for the exam, and select a person to act as your exam proctor/monitor well in advance. You must pass the exam in order to receive any of the following credit: Credit towards achieving the CISR Designation 8-hour Annual Update credit for the CISR Designation State Continuing Education Credits/Hours (for state issued license renewal) Proctor Instructions Affidavit of Exam and CE Request Form With every successful exam, you and your proctor must sign and submit an affidavit of exam. When you pass your exam, fax the affidavit of exam and CE (Continuing Education) request form to the fax number printed on the cover sheet. Please send the original PA Rev. 06/10 Page 4
affidavit by mail (address also printed on the affidavit cover sheet.) We strongly recommend that you keep a copy for your records. Send the CE Request form even if you are not requesting CE hours/credits for insurance license renewal. Note: You will receive an email reminding you to send in the affidavit if you pass your exam with a score of 70 or above. Do not submit an affidavit for an unsuccessful exam. Affidavits CISR Insuring Personal Auto Final Exam The exam is a challenging, 100 point randomized test comprised of 50 multiple choice questions worth 2 points each. When you submit your exam for grading you will receive your score immediately. The score page is sent to your email address and to The National Alliance for Insurance Education. The score is recorded in your CISR permanent record, but is not certified until you submit the affidavit of exam, signed by you and your proctor. (In New York, the proctor/monitor must mail the affidavit.) Once we receive and accept your affidavit, we will send your notification of passing, and the embossed seal for your CISR Portfolio! Go to your course home page to quickly link to exam and proctor instructions, and other course information. Look for the home icon on the bottom navigation bar. Curriculum Support Faculty Members from the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research are assigned to take emails from students in the OnLine Courses. Our faculty members are experienced practitioners and teachers in the insurance industry. We ask them to respond to each email within 24 hours, or before the end of the next business day. Each course mentor will be happy to clarify any portion of the curriculum that you seek help with. PA Rev. 06/10 Page 5
Make sure you have carefully reviewed the course curriculum and clearly note the page or self quiz question number when you contact a Course Mentor. The mentors will refer any computer issues you have to the OnLine Help desk. National Alliance staff is available by phone or email for technical support issues. cisronline@scic.com To phone the Online Help Desk call: 800-633-2165 and select the online option. Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 5 pm Central Standard Time How to Print A copy of the entire course is available in.pdf format on the Course Home Page. Copies of each lesson are available in the Forms Library and at the beginning of each Lesson. To use the Print this Page button on each page, be sure to set your print properties to Landscape so that you will reproduce the page correctly. Try printing this page now: 1. Click on "Print this Page," above. 2. Select the preferences panel of your print properties dialog box. 3. Select landscape as your print orientation. (Sometime this is only a matter of clicking on the document image to re-orient it to landscape.) 4. Click Apply and OK to print. Network printer settings vary, please contact your network administrator for help with printing. Navigation Click on the Course Map link above. Yours will look somewhat different from the image we've reproduced here. This menu will be your index to pages in the course. Insuring Personal Auto consists of 7 lessons with up to 5 topics in each lesson. PA Rev. 06/10 Page 6
The course map allows you to navigate through the lessons and topics of the course as you wish. However, you are encouraged to complete the course in the sequence of the lessons. When you achieve a score of 70 or above on the self quiz, you may proceed to the next topic. If you do not pass the self quiz, you will receive a link to the previous topic on your score page. The course is structured in this way to assist your learning, and to meet the high standards of online continuing education imposed by state departments of insurance. Policy and Endorsement Forms This course is based on the Insurance Services Office (ISO) January 2005 edition of the Personal Auto Policy. There are other editions of the Personal Auto Policy and you may see different auto policy forms or editions used by different jurisdictions or insurance companies. In addition some companies have their own version of a Personal Auto Policy. These company specific policies often incorporate some of the ISO endorsement language into the policy. All of these policies are similar in that they cover the same basic exposures and use much of the same language. However, they do vary in the coverage provided for specific situations. Every state has an endorsement with the title, Amendment of Policy Provisions - (name of state). This endorsement modifies the policy so that it conforms to the laws and regulations affecting automobile insurance in that state. You must always review your State Amendatory Endorsement to be sure you have a complete picture of the auto policy you are providing for your clients It is important that you be familiar with the versions of the Personal Auto Policy with which you are working. PA Rev. 06/10 Page 7
Course Study and Exam Preparation Have you ever thought about how you learn? The study aids listed below will help you determine your progress and test your understanding of concepts and examples presented in the course. Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives are designed for managing your own learning. The learning objectives for the course are listed at the beginning of each topic. The learning objectives are indicated throughout the course pages as well. At the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to read the learning objectives again, and see how confident you feel about each one. Self Quizzes Self quizzes are another learning management tool. You are required to pass each self quiz with a score of 70 or above before moving forward in the course, and you can launch a self quiz as many times as needed. To print the score page of your self quiz, click on Assessment Results, then right click on the page. The Assessment Results page makes an excellent study aid. Glossary Glossary terms and definitions are critical to insurance professionals, and a key study aid for your online course. To define a term, click on the Glossary link above. Definitions of newly introduced terms will also be included on the course pages. Knowledge Checks Knowledge Checks are application level questions. By attempting to apply the concepts of the course, you will better prepare yourself for the final exam. Make sure you attempt each knowledge check in the course. Course Mentor And don't forget to email the Course Mentor with your questions about the curriculum. Our faculty members are distinguished producers and risk managers who currently work in the insurance industry. The mentors are happy to explain and clarify the concepts in the course. They will return your email on or before the next business day. PA Rev. 06/10 Page 8
Be sure to use the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Page to review guides for commonly asked questions. FLORIDA RESIDENTS ONLY: The state of Florida has taken a very strong position on the issue of Unauthorized Entities. An Unauthorized Entity is an insurance company that is not licensed by the Florida Department of Financial Services. Agents and brokers have responsibility for conducting reasonable research to ensure that they are not writing policies or placing business with Unauthorized Entities. Lack of careful screening can result in significant financial loss to Florida residents due to unpaid claims and/or theft of premiums. Agents may be held liable when representing these Unauthorized Entities. It is the agents and brokers responsibility to give fair and accurate information regarding the companies they represent. Any question about the authorized status of a company can be checked by calling the Florida Department of Financial Services at 1.877.693.5236 or 850.413.3089. We urge all agents and brokers to adhere to this admonition. Course Structure This course contains 7 lessons. 1. Introduction to the Personal Auto Policy 2. Part A Liability Coverage 3. Part B Medical Payments Coverage 4. Part C Uninsured Motorists Coverage 5. Part D Coverage for Damage to Your Auto 6. Policy Conditions 7. Personal Umbrella Policies Each lesson is further broken down into topics. In each topic, you will have content to read, graphical material to view, and self-quizzes to test your comprehension of important points. At course conclusion, you may take your final exam. PA Rev. 06/10 Page 9