Got Your CPCU^®? Explore New Opportunities to Grow Your Risk Management Career

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Text, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series.

 A coffee cup sits next to a laptop on a desk. Text, Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Joan Woodward appears on a video call. 

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JOAN WOODWARD: Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us. Welcome back to Wednesdays with Woodward. I'm Joan Woodward, your host. We're so thrilled that so many of you have let us know that you find our sessions helpful and valuable in your business. And as you all know, the business world really is changing and changing fast. 

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Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Got your C.P.C.U. (registered trademark)? Explore New Opportunities to Grow Your Risk Management Career. Logos of Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Travelers. MetroHartford Alliance. The Institutes (registered trademark), Young Professionals & Allies Diversity Network. Big I Minnesota (registered trademark). UCONN School of Business, M S in Financial Technology. Text, C.P.C.U. is a registered trademark of The Institutes. 

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So today we're going to talk about what risk managers and insurance professionals can do to keep up with it all. And to help us answer that question, we're welcoming Peter Miller, President and CEO of The Institutes, to the program today. Since 1909-- and I went back and checked that number-- but since 1909, The Institutes has provided insurance professionals with educational courses and professional development programs across the whole spectrum. These designations and certificates really do help insurance professionals advance in their careers and stay at the cutting edge of our industry. 

So as many of you know, but The Institutes is also affiliated with a number of excellent organizations that provide tremendous value. The Insurance Information Institute, or the III, for example, provides must-read, data-driven research information really solely focused on the industry. And they also have more than 60 insurance company members, including regional, superregionals, national and global carriers like ourselves. We really have a lot to cover, and we're thrilled to have Pete join us today. 

So, we'd like to cover some topics on continuing education courses that Travelers offers to our agent and broker community. If you don't know about them, we're going to talk about them today, such as our Producer School, as well as to our own employees. So if you're an employee joining us today, we're going to talk about your opportunities. 

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Slide, About Travelers Institute (registered trademark) Webinars. The Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) educational webinar series is presented by the Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers. This program is offered for informational and educational purposes only. You should consult with your financial, legal, insurance or other advisors about any practices suggested by this program. Please note that this session is being recorded and may be used as Travelers deems appropriate. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. 

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So one quick note before we get started-- I'd like to share our disclaimer about today's program. 

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She returns to the previous slide, with the title and logos. 

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And also I want to take a moment to thank our partners-- so the Master’s in FinTech Program at UConn School of Business, the Big I of Minnesota, the MetroHartford Alliance, and Travelers’ Young Professionals and Allies Diversity Network. So, now I'm pleased to introduce Pete Miller. 

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Slide, Speakers. Pictures of Joan and Pete. Text, Joan Woodward. Executive Vice President, Public Policy; President, Travelers Institute, Travelers. Peter Miller. President & CEO, The Institutes. 

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Pete is the President and CEO of The Institutes and has served in that role since 2005. He's a graduate of Colorado State University, where he earned his bachelor's in business administration and a master's degree in systems management. He also holds an MBA from Villanova University. He chairs The Institute for Global Insurance Education's board and is a member of the Insurance Institute of Switzerland's board and the Independent Insurance Association of Brokers-- Agents and Brokers of America Investment Board and Trustees-- the Graduate Business Advisory Council at Villanova as well. 

So, Pete, welcome. It's really an honor and a privilege to speak with you today. And I really want to turn it over to you because first I want to talk about the structure of the organization. There's so many different subsidiaries and affiliates. And so we want to give you a minute to talk about that. 

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Pete appears on the video call. Slide, The Institutes. Who we are.

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PETE MILLER: Well, thank you very much. I'm very grateful to be here today, and certainly I appreciate the chance to get to talk to you and all the great folks at Travelers and across the industry who are on this webinar. You know, I often am asked-- you know, The Institutes-- who are you and what do you do? And actually that answer has changed quite a bit over the years. 

But there's a key focus that has remained the same and that is, we're here to help you succeed. That's it. So what we want to do is to provide you with the knowledge tools you need in a time, manner and place of your choosing so that you can be successful. And we think that if you're successful, your organizations are successful and this industry's successful. 

And I mean, I love this industry. I think this industry is key to any economy. And the work that you do every day is just phenomenal, A, and B, irreplaceable. No modern economy can operate without the work that you do. And it's interesting to me because I go to a lot of developing countries, and they recognize how important the job that you do-- managing risk and being able to make sure that entrepreneurs and other businesses and individuals can sustain losses and recover from losses and be able to manage their risk. 

So what we're trying to do at The Institutes is to provide you with a variety of different means in order to succeed. So we do that through what we call educate, elevate and connect. So if you could go to the next slide, I'd really appreciate it. 

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Slide, A graphic of the logo of The Institutes (registered trademark) in a circle. Other logos branch off from the circle. Logos, International Insurance Society, The Institutes (registered trademark) C.P.C.U. Society, Black Insurance Industry Collective, Claims Pages, Insurance Research Council, National Comp., The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative (registered trademark), Insurance Thought Leadership dot com, Risk & Insurance, Insurance Information Institute, MyPath, Insurance. It's limitless. The Institutes (registered trademark) Griffith Foundation, C.L.M., Catastrophe Resiliency Council, Pacific Insurance Conference, The Institutes Agent & Broker Group (registered trademark), C.E.U. Insurance Continuing Education (registered trademark), and National Ergo. 

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What this slide shows is that The Institutes is not the old Institutes-- or as they used to say, your father's Institutes. 

What we've tried to do over the past few years is certainly maintain and focus and expand our educational offerings. You know, we offer education to right under 100,000 students a year. So all property casualty, a little bit in life, but mostly property casualty across all sectors of the industry and across what I would call a time dimension. So whether you're a broker, an agent, you're in reinsurance, you're a premium auditor, you work in surplus lines, you're an underwriter at a large commercial company or a claims person at a personal lines company, our job is to make sure you have the information you need to succeed.

So what we've done in past few years is say, well, how do people acquire knowledge? And how do they acquire information? And we've added organizations to our sort of company-- our portfolio of companies so that we can meet a broader spectrum of your need. And that's really what this graphic represents. 

So when you think about how do you acquire knowledge, certainly one way is education-- very important way. You need to have an underlying sort of base of knowledge, and particularly about property casualty because it's not taught in a lot of universities. So we need to have a way of saying, well, here's the industry sort of when you enter the industry and as you progress throughout your career. 

But what if you have a-- you need an immediate answer to something? Then we have knowledge that you can use for immediate answers. Or you want to go to an event, you want to network with people-- well, we decided, how can we meet that need? We can acquire organizations like CLM—Claims and Litigation Management, which has about 55,000 folks involved in claims and claims litigation management. 

Suppose you wanted to know, how is the industry progressing? Or, how's this year going from a financial point of view across the whole industry? Well, you could go to the Insurance Information Institute-- real-time, up-to-date statistics around how the industry is doing and a wide variety of statistics. 

Suppose you're a regulator. You're new to the industry. You want to know, what's insurance all about? Or you work in the legislature of a state. 

What's insurance all about, so I can make sure I have the knowledge I need to either regulate or legislate? Well, you could go to our Griffith Foundation. And about 1,500 people a year who are regulators do that. 

So we're a not-for-profit. Our goal is to serve you, and we continue to try to understand how we can do that more effectively. So, again, some of our affiliates-- so in our world, the not-for-profit world, we call them affiliates, and these are some of the organizations. Just to highlight a couple-- I've already highlighted a couple, but a couple more. 

So I talked about the Insurance Information Institute. I talked about Griffith for regulators, CLM for claims litigation folks. An interesting one for us that I'll talk about a little bit later is the Risk Stream Collaborative. That's actually a blockchain company, and I'll talk about that a little bit later. And then the Black Insurance Industry Collective. That's a DEI effort that organizations came to us and asked us, can you help us with this effort? 

An interesting one is the International Insurance Society. That's actually an association of companies, and what it's meant to do is to provide a platform where issues that would be international in scope and global in scope can be discussed. And people internationally can network in order to look at some of these issues. 

So we have a wide variety of companies, as I mentioned, but it's all focused on you. And what we're really trying to do most effectively is to say, what do you need, and what knowledge and skills do you need in order to do your job and in order for you, and then by extension your organization and our industries, to succeed. And that's really been the focus. 

So, again, if you need information about this, you can go to theinstitutes.org. But our goal continues to be to find out new ways and new topics, and really to be in front of where the industry is going. We want to be able to serve the industry as it exists today, but be able to anticipate where the industry is going so that we can serve future needs as well, and to help people acquire skills towards that future. 

So I think I have the greatest job in the industry. I'm super lucky. First of all, I work with just a great group of people. And that group of people get up every single day and we all try to make sure that we're on top of where the industry is today, and the issues pertaining to the industry, and where it's going so that we can provide you with the best possible service. 

The other thing that I think makes my job awesome, besides being in this industry, is we are a not-for-profit and we're supported by the industry. And we work for the industry. So we kind of view ourselves as Switzerland, and that means that it's really interesting because we've got a wide view of the industry. 

And we get a lot of feedback from different parts. And we're able to have good reach into the industry and really gain in-depth understanding. Because the people that know the most about the industry, frankly, are the people who are participating in it, and that's you. 

So we do work with colleges and universities-- a lot of work with the American Risk and Insurance Association-- ARIA. We have programs at colleges where you can waive parts of CPCU if you take college courses, if they qualify. So we certainly get academic input. 

We do work with regulators, as I mentioned. We do work with companies and agencies and etc. So when we do that, that reach into the industry has been super beneficial for us because it gives us a broader view of what's going on. And we don't lobby. We're not a lobbying organization. 

So that we can really, I think, get a very good handle on where the industry’s going. And again, we turn that into products and services so that you can get the knowledge you need to do your job in a time, manner and place of your choosing. So it's been fascinating. 

We certainly-- it's not the old CPCU. We have been around since 1909, but there are some consistent threads as I mentioned. And you know, service to our industry, service to the folks in the industry, continues to be a key thing for us. And we're working very, very hard, and it's to make sure that we keep our materials up to date. 

It's a very interesting time to be in this industry. I'm always struck by how fast this industry is changing and accelerating change. Is it changing fast enough? That's an open question, I suppose.

But we're very excited about where this industry’s going. I'll talk a little bit about some of those initiatives a little bit later. But the idea that this industry is on the cusp of really being able to provide, I think, more services to its customers and its policyholders is something that I'm very, very excited about. 

So when we look at where the industry is going and our role in that, it's of particular interest to us that we have a good handle on that, and we spend a lot of time and energy doing that. We are often asked to help coordinate industry-wide efforts and that is a big part of our business. So we'll talk a little bit about some of those efforts in the course of this talk. But because we are Switzerland, we're kind of a trusted, neutral party. And because we don't lobby, we can go to regulators and legislators and get a wide variety of people together in order to solve a problem. 

So for me personally, and perhaps selfishly, it's very interesting. It's an intellectually stimulating job. But I think for you and our organization, I think we try very hard to make sure you have the skills and knowledge that you need. And I congratulate you for working in this industry, frankly. You've chosen a great industry. 

As I said, nothing happens in a modern economy without this industry. And you've chosen great organizations to work for. So we're very excited. I think this slide shows some of the different ways we're trying to meet your needs. But it's an ongoing effort and one that we take very seriously. So with that, I’ll turn it over, or I'll turn it back to Joan. 

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The slide disappears. Joan and Pete appear side by side on the video call. 

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JOAN WOODWARD: OK, Pete, thank you so much. We really appreciate seeing all the different aspects of The Institutes and your work. So now we want to turn the cameras on our audience. Because I love to ask our audience a couple of questions just to get a feel for what is on their minds. And so we have an audience polling question coming up now, talking about what topics are you most interested in learning about in a continuing education course? 

So we give you a couple of choices here. And this really helps actually inform the Travelers Institute when we put on these programs for you on Wednesdays, because we want to know what you're interested in and what you want to hear about and from which experts out there. So while you're answering that question there, we have a couple thousand people registered for our webinars today-- so a lot of people chiming in here. This is good. 

Looks like leadership and management skills in the insurance industry is always a hot topic in this time where labor shortages are out there, and we know the unemployment rate is so low. We want to talk about employment in our industry. Technology and analytics came in a close second, it looks like, at 33%. I know I'm not a technology whiz, but what's going on in terms of innovation in this space for our industry is really, really exciting.

And then, of course, legislative and regulatory-- and Pete, we see this a lot with our industry because it is so heavily regulated in 50 states, as you well know. So what do you think of these topics, Pete? Does this strike you as what you're hearing from your base of supporters? 

PETE MILLER: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it's very interesting because leadership and management is always important, right? I think leaders matter. And that's part of what we try to develop at The Institutes. And it's key, I think, in any industry in any organization. But certainly I think in times of change, like I think our industry is undergoing-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: Yep. 

PETE MILLER: Leaders need to be able to paint a vision. So I think those skills are important. Certainly technology and analytics-- I mean, we'll talk about that a little bit later, I think. But my background is, I was a programmer and that's how I started in our industry. And I did a lot of work on artificial intelligence in some postgraduate studies, so it's fascinating. And I think our industry has so much potential to use technologies well. 

And as you said, certainly it's a heavily regulated industry. And I think those kind of go together because I think regulators are very interested in what technology is being used, and how can we make sure that they're up to speed in what we're doing as an industry. And it's a collaborative effort because in a heavily regulated industry, I think it needs to be that way. 

The good thing is they are asking for that. We do several different seminars and webinars with the NAIC and that sort of thing. So yeah, it's a long-winded answer, but yeah, that's exactly what we're hearing. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, wonderful. And, of course, disaster preparedness obviously-- the wildfire and the hurricane and the-- it's just nonstop with this climate change that we have on our hands. And so that's going to be an important topic for us as well. OK, we have another question for our audience members. We really want to hear from you on this one. 

So what role best describes you? What do you do every day? We want to hear from you, and we're going to tailor our conversation based on these results. So please chime in here. We want to know what role you play in insurance or broker agent community. 

I'll give this a second to come in. All right, it looks like we have a very nice mix as you would expect in our audience, between underwriter, account executive, producer, manager and others. So, a wide variety, Pete, for us to tailor our comments to today. 

So that's wonderful. Thank you all in the audience. And let us know, by the way-- when you fill out your survey-- we're going to drop the survey in our chat. Let us know if you like to do these questions or not, and if we should have more questions during our webinars. We want to hear from you. OK, so Pete, you talked about the change in this industry over the past couple of years. What developments really did surprise you the most? 

PETE MILLER: Well, I think the industry-- you know, I think of us as the original big data industry. And I think that thread has continued, that sort of stream of data. The availability of data has just gone exponential but that's been the last five or six years. I think our ability to use that data is really increasing dramatically. And that, to me, is really, really interesting. 

I think that whether companies are using it strategically versus episodically, it doesn't matter to me. But when I go to insurance conferences or technology, and I see the technology that's becoming available, it's quite impressive. And I think it's still in its infancy, quite frankly-- some of these predictive data sets. But I think that has gone-- has really grown dramatically just recently. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Good, OK. So how do you stay fresh in this marketplace, or relevant? Where do you get-- has your staff really engaged with carriers like us to get the data, so the III can put it out in a way that-- you know, package it in a way that people can digest? How do you think about-- I mean, you're a think tank, a research organization, as you say, a nonprofit. You view yourself as educational, informational-- so how do you stay fresh in that kind of environment? 

PETE MILLER: Well, this is a real challenge, right? Because we need to stay fresh, otherwise we're not relevant. So for us, I do work with such a great group of people and I'm so lucky. We work very hard every day to establish relationships in the industry and to maintain and build those. 

So there's roughly 2,200 property casualty companies in the U.S., and in any one year we'll sell to roughly 1,900 of them. So that is a great-- so we have relationships throughout the industry. I mentioned we have relationships with academics. We also have relationships with the regulators. 

So we have a very broad reach. And being a not-for-profit, as I mentioned, really helps that. So we have committees on developing curriculum, and we have our CPCU Society, which has people in it-- you know, in most of the companies throughout the country to help us understand where the industry is going-- to develop theses, if you will, that we can test. So that we can go, well, is this kind of what you're doing? Does this make sense? 

And then to be thought leaders-- we have the Insurance Thought Leadership-- one of our websites, which really publishes forward-looking pieces from experts and thought leaders. A key point for us to maintain our status and to maintain our knowledge base is our board, frankly. So it's a very large board. There's about 48 people on it, and they're senior leaders in the industry, a lot of-- mostly CEOs. Not everyone's a CEO. 

But for me personally, that's a great resource because they're leaders in the industry. They control roughly 70% of the industry, and then bankers and TPAs and commercial underwriters and personal lines companies, reinsurers. And that group is just phenomenal. We can bounce ideas. So our goal is to try to reach the whole industry. And I think we have pretty good reach into that industry so that we can make sure that our content is current for today, but also to anticipate where the industry’s going so we can provide that type of knowledge to folks as the industry evolves. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Wonderful. You know, Pete, it's funny, you kind of took the words out of my mouth. Because 15 years ago at Travelers, that's why we established the Travelers Institute really to be a thought leader. Because sharing the wealth of knowledge of our underwriters and experts at Travelers with the industry was one of the goals of the Travelers Institute. So you kind of-- it's music to my ears. We're a little microcosm, if you will, of the larger industry at Travelers. So-- 

PETE MILLER: And if I might, what a great job you've done. I mean, my exposure to the Travelers Institute has just been great. And I think you're a real exemplar of what organizations can do. So-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: Thank you. 

PETE MILLER: I think you've done a great job. 

JOAN WOODWARD: That was not set up, folks in the audience. 

PETE MILLER: No, it wasn't! 

JOAN WOODWARD: All right, let's get into the CPCU because there's a lot of folks on the call today. It's one of the most well-known credentials out there that you guys offer. What are some of the benefits? So if someone on the call today joined because they're not sure what the benefits or advantages are with coming-- what comes with that designation. So give us the soup-to-nuts on it and why would someone want to get it, and then we'll talk more about it. 

PETE MILLER: So the CPCU designation, just to remind everybody, we think of it as-- and statistically, and we take surveys, it's the premier designation in property casualty insurance. It's been around since 1942. We started it a little bit later than the organization started. But it's really designed to be for the senior-- for people who really want to advance in the industry, and it covers a wide breadth of that industry. 

So the benefits to an individual-- they're sort of tangible and intangible, if you will. On the intangible side, certainly you'll be more informed about the industry. You'll be able to make better decisions because you'll have a better knowledge base. You'll be able to know the concepts that underlie our industry. 

I think it's very interesting because we talked about-- one of the things that came up in the survey was leadership. And I think what we often hear from our board and other people in the industry is, it's really great because we have a bunch of specialists and that's awesome. And we need people that understand IT and analytics and marketing. What we really also need are people that understand the whole thing-- how does-- how does an organization work and what's the big picture and what's the strategic framework.

And that is what the CPCU is designed to help with. So certainly, we do surveys on tangible benefits. Over half the people, for example, get a raise when they get a CPCU. Eighty percent of them would say that they got a new job, and within six, eight months of getting a CPCU. 

There's also a big proportion of people that would say, I've done better at my job. Large majority of people get recognition-- a very important thing. So large groups of people would say, I get a raise, I got a promotion, I get recognition. So those are kind of tangible benefits. 

But I think there's also the intangible-- I have knowledge. I've accomplished something. If you have CPCU in Good Standing as a badge on your LinkedIn account, I think it really says to people, I'm an expert in this industry. 

And that's what we designed it to be. So, I think it's-- my predecessors frankly made the organization, I think-- gave it a great reputation. I'm trying to continue that, and I think CPCU has been a large part of that. 

JOAN WOODWARD: So tell us exactly what criteria need to be met in order to receive the CPCU. Is there a period of time? Is it so many modules you must complete? Give us the criteria. 

PETE MILLER: Yeah, so we think that there's three things that really make a CPCU in terms of to get the designation. It's education, experience and ethics. So for us to serve, and for us to serve our industry as CPCUs, we need to have a knowledge base, right? We need to know what we're talking about. 

And that's encapsulated in eight courses. So they're basically designed to be semester-long. However, some people now can do it in a much shorter time because we test all the time. So they're college-level courses-- so upper-division baccalaureate or master's-level courses. There's eight of them. You need to pass all eight of those. 

Secondly, there is a work requirement. You need to work in a risk management and/or insurance job for two years. And then third, and very important to us, is there's an ethics component. I very strongly believe this industry is built on a promise. It's an intangible good, and therefore there's a huge ethical component. 

Because we as an industry say, well, if you pay us premium and if you have a problem, we're going to pay your claim. So-- and we're going to do that fairly and ethically. So you cannot take any of our designations without taking an ethics course, including CPCU. So those are the three requirements-- education in the form of those eight courses, an experience requirement of two years, and then signing an ethics pledge which-- that binds you for the rest of your career as far as your business activities go. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Great, great. But that's just one of your offerings or your certifications or designations, right? So tell us about the others outside of CPCU. What else do you offer in terms of designations? 

PETE MILLER: Yeah, so our job, as I mentioned, is to cover the breadth and depth of the industry. So on a designation basis, we have over 30 designations. So, we’re a not-for-profit, so some of them have very small enrollment. Associates in Premium Auditing-- couple hundred people a year, but we have it because that's an important function in the industry. 

Surplus lines insurance-- another one, very important in our industry. Are there a lot of people that take that designation? No. It's just-- there's not a lot of people involved. All the way to Associate in Claims-- so for claims professionals. That's a big program for us. 

Associates in Risk Management-- very popular with brokers. Because increasingly, they offer risk management services to their clients. In fact, there's an ARM path to CPCU. ARM is Associate in Risk Management. 

Underwriting-- we have both commercial and personal lines underwriting courses. So again, if you can think of a function in the industry, our goal is to have a designation for it. There's an Associate in Reinsurance. So that's our goal. I mean, we're trying to provide service in the form of designations to all the folks in our industry. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Good, good. Actually, you know what? Maybe I'll take a brief pause here and talk about some of the Travelers offerings we offer to agents, brokers and even employees. So for agents and brokers on the line today, Travelers does offer a virtual Commercial Lines New Producer School to give those new producers in your organization a thorough understanding of the insurance principle's core commercial lines business. 

So that's a four-week program that Travelers offers three times a year-- or four times. We had three times last year in 2022, and we're going to be bringing that back in 2023. So to enroll in the school as an agent and broker, you must be referred by a Travelers employee. So keep an eye out for the Agents Portal for more information, or talk to your Travelers rep out there anywhere in the country. And say-- put your hand up and say you want to go to the Travelers Producer School. 

Now for employees, you'll be excited to learn that if you're pursuing your CPCU designation or any other one that Pete just talked about, our Educational Assistance Program covers the cost of your books, classes, exams, fees, through a designation process with The Institutes. So we'll have another opportunity to sign up for the CPU classes, and we're going to begin advertising that on the inside page. 

So if you have any questions on that, our employees out there, contact Cheryl Constantine. Cheryl is in charge of this. That's Constantine-- C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-I-N-E. So, sorry for that little interlude there, but I thought I'd let folks know what we offer at Travelers. 

So let's talk about, Pete-- you're new to the industry. You're brand-new, so you don't have the two years under your belt to get your CPCU. What does The Institutes offer for those who are just brand-new to the industry? Is there some other certification or a newbie training program? What do you guys offer?

PETE MILLER: So we offer a variety of things, and it can be by job type, for example. We listed some of the job types in the survey. If you're a broker, we have Professional Risk Consultant. So you're brand-new to the industry, your first day on the job, don't really know anything about insurance-- kind of working with folks. That is an example of a designation. 

You're working at Travelers or you're working at one of our other member organizations. It's your first day on the job. You want to get a designation. We have an Associate in General Insurance. We call it AINS. That would be an example. 

We also do it increasingly-- and in a complementary fashion-- we'll offer short courses. So it might be your first day on the job and you just want to understand what insurance is. How do I spell insurance? We have a program called Insurance Fundamentals. 

So we have a wide variety. Generally most people would look at our Associate in General Insurance. It's a three-course designation-- if they're looking for a designation. But that's really meant to introduce you to our industry. 

As I mentioned earlier, not very many-- there's only maybe 3,500 graduates of risk management and insurance programs on an annual basis in the United States, and hiring is in the hundreds of thousands. So most people that come into our industry really don't know anything about our industry, and we designed some of those programs to help them get up to speed. 

JOAN WOODWARD: That's great. I really-- I should take some of those courses too. 

[CHUCKLING] 

So Pete, what about those that are more advanced in their careers? Outside the CPCU, do you have kind of highly advanced programs for someone who's been in the industry but maybe just wants to sharpen their skills, learn about what's new out there? Because if you're already successful in your insurance career, a lot of people don't think, oh, I better go learn more. Because I probably know most of what I need to know to do my current job. But do you offer that cutting-edge, fresh perspective for those that have been doing this for a lot of years? Or is there not-- 

PETE MILLER: Yeah, so I think that's a great question. And that's something where we've been focused on quite a bit. Again, breadth and depth of the industry, but also on a time dimension over the course of somebody's involvement in our industry or participation. 

So, for example, if you've had a CPCU and you've been an underwriter and you want to learn more, we have these specialty programs. But we do-- so Associates in Underwriting, Associates in Personal Lines Underwriting, Associates in Reinsurance. But we also have developed other products. 

So if you want to know-- and this would be around events. We have the very large workers comp event, for example. Or our In2Risk from the CPCU Society. So that's kind of where we certainly have designations. And I have a base level of knowledge and I want to get into a specialty. And a large part of those 30-plus designations are specialties. 

So if you're advanced in your career, you can continue to learn. But then you can also use events. You can go to events or you can have on-- we do about 200 webinars a year, roughly 50, 60 events a year. So there's a variety of different ways you can get that. 

We also, interestingly, have board of directors training. So to give you a sense, not only are we focused on folks who are in the industry, but folks who go onto boards. We're actually holding that right now for people who are senior in their career and are going on a board. 

The other thing we offer is two different residency programs-- one at the University of Wisconsin and one at the Darden School in UVA. And those are meant for people-- the one at Wisconsin is, you're rising through a functional area and you're going to get to lead that functional area. So what does that mean? What skills do you need? What does leadership mean-- those sort of things.

 The one at Darden is more, you've been running a functional area and you're about to move into a more senior C-level, perhaps, position. And it means, how do you strategically lead an organization. So again, we have a wide variety of tools to not only people new to the industry, but people as they go throughout their career, and a wide variety of methods to meet those needs by more designations, through more designations, and then through different means of delivery including events and webinars and other sorts of things. 

JOAN WOODWARD: And so let me ask about the other organizations that you had on that matrix chart that you showed us in the very beginning. So there's organizations like the Black Insurance Industry Collective or the Catastrophe Resilience Council. So if someone listening in today wants to join one of these other organizations, I mean, is it free and open to the industry? Does it come with a charge? Does your company have to be a member of The Institutes for you to join these groups? Tell us how that works.

PETE MILLER: Yeah, so we don't really have-- The Institutes per se does not have members. Some of the organizations on that chart, however, do. So, for example, the Black Insurance Industry Collective or the Catastrophe Resiliency Council, those are made up of companies. 

And actually in both of those cases, groups of companies came to us and said, we have a problem. We need a neutral third party with a good governance structure that knows how to do cooperative efforts. And can you help us? So we created those two organizations. 

The Black Insurance Industry Collective is really meant to help African Americans who've gotten to a certain level in their career and want to be able to get into more senior positions. So we're very excited about that. The Catastrophe Resiliency Council, on the other hand, is companies-- is a set of companies that came to us and said, you know what? Catastrophe models talking to internal company models, talking to vendor models, this is a problem because there's no standard. Can you help us develop standards so that we can have a more efficient risk transfer sort of methodology and process? 

So, in some cases you have to be a member of the company who's a member of the organization. In many cases, if you want to get involved in some of the things on the chart, you don't need to be. So you don't need-- your company doesn't need to be a member of those organizations-- so CLM, for example-- I talked about that-- or the society, the CPCU Society. 

And then in some cases-- like we own Risk and Insurance Magazine. You can subscribe to the magazine. Or Insurance Thought Leadership-- you get the access to this free of charge-- no charge to anybody. But they can acquire knowledge that way. 

JOAN WOODWARD: That's really wonderful that there's no charge on all your rich content. It's fantastic. All right, I want to shift a bit because I want to talk about technology. And it's really been a big disruptor for our industry. 

And I want to break down each of these things. So the Internet of Things I want to talk about with you, blockchain-- which a lot of people, including me, struggle to really understand how that works in our industry-- and analytics. So let's go first to the Internet of Things and insurance. Obviously one thing that comes to my mind is telematics and vehicles. What other applications do you think about with IoT from an insurance perspective? 

PETE MILLER: So the combination of these three is very exciting to me. But Internet of Things-- what does that mean? So obviously IoT-- Internet of Things-- it's about, to me, data collection, appropriate privacy safeguards-- but I hope you can see I have an Apple Watch. That's an Internet of Things device. 

It's collecting data about where I am, what my heart rate is. And it's good for me because I like to analyze that stuff. So there's all kinds of Internet of Things applications. You can think like a Ring doorbell with a camera. It's an Internet of Things device. 

You could-- I mentioned I did a lot of work at the Ph.D. level in AI. And you can look at camera frames and say, oh gosh, there's a person there. Should there be? 

One of the things we get excited about, as in another example, are preventing, predicting and preventing problems. So you could have sensors on pipes that if the pipe is flowing, it's been flowing, the moisture meter says the moisture in my basement is too high, an Internet of Things device can give that data and then get a response that says, shut off the pipes. 

So when you think about it, there's auto certainly. And a lot of those are crash avoidance systems and telematics and that kind of thing. But there's things in the home as well. So there's devices like a camera or your thermostat or your doorbell or other devices that you can put in your house, like line conditioners to make sure you don't have spikes in your electric that might cause a fire. 

Those kind of things are Internet of Things devices. They transmit data. You can control them over the internet. And they can be automatically controlled, should you wish to do that. 

So this is of particular interest to me. I mean, there’s some challenges because there's no data standard. All the different devices have different standards. So Internet of Things is really a series of internet resident, if you will, devices that can transmit data. In our case, in our industry's case, hopefully so you can take preventative actions. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, all right. We're going to move on to analytics, which is the second leg of the stool here, and its applicability to insurance is really so broad. So give us some concrete examples of how the use of analytics is driving change in our industry. 

PETE MILLER: Well, now that we have all this data, what are we going to do with it, right? And that's where analytics comes into play. And if you look at the tools today, the amount of data, A, that's being collected, B, that you can, what we would say, address. How much data can you address? 

And then what can you draw inferences and take actions from-- is truly astounding. So you're seeing AI in claims for example. Certainly being able to understand fraud-- fraud is a great one. I built an AI system 30 years ago, believe it or not, to detect fraud in workers comp systems-- workers comp claims, I should say. 

So you're seeing that I think increasingly. What you do is you get the data, and then you run it through an analytics engine, and you go, well, should I do something about this? Is this normal or isn't it normal? And that to me is pretty exciting. 

But I think we're seeing it in underwriting-- certainly AI in underwriting, certainly AI in fraud detection, certainly AI in claims situations. AI, a part of AI is pattern recognition. There's a company that I'm aware of that actually takes pictures of the underneath of cars and has very high-resolution cameras. And then when a car comes in for a claim, they take another picture, and they can compare them, and they can say what repairs are needed. So it's quite interesting. 

You know, I think a lot of the telematics you mentioned-- most cars now-- like a Tesla is continuously collecting data. And you can run that through analytics and through AI to make inferences and decisions about the driver and their driving habits and things like that. So in underwriting and claims-- another one is market selection, like who's going to be your customer. And marketing parts of insurance companies are using that extensively. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, we're going to move on to blockchain now for a moment. But I want to ask my audience, if you're interested in asking Pete a question, drop it now in the Q&A. So give us a few questions for Pete in the Q&A. We're going to get to those in a minute here. So on blockchain, we know that there’s several applications for this technology from a financial standpoint. But what are really the insurance industry applications for blockchain? And what is-- 

PETE MILLER: So to answer that, let's just think-- oh, sorry. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Let's explain what-- 

PETE MILLER: The answer to that-- let's just think about-- 

JOAN WOODWARD: Blockchain is first. Yeah, tell us. 

PETE MILLER: So blockchain-- so this is of great interest to me because blockchain is actually a chain of blocks. And they're blocks of data, and they're linked together, and one leads to the other. And the interesting thing to me, from a security point of view, is they're constructed in such a way that really you can't hack them. Because if you try to change anything in the past, everybody in the community knows right away. So what does that mean? You can share data amongst parties that you don't know, very securely. 

So what is that? Where can we see that in insurance? This is why we started a blockchain company, and we have about 30 company members. And what we're doing is we're saying, well, where did companies need to share data? Where does it make sense for a neutral third party to help do that? 

And this technology is very good because it's immutable. It means it cannot be changed, or everybody knows it. So for example, we have a first notice of loss app that we're in the process of deploying. We have about eight companies that are testing it. 

And what it says is, in an auto accident, first notice of loss-- if you and I get in a car wreck and you're with Travelers and I'm with some other company, they are going to talk to each other and try to get the facts of that case set. So we can say, well, at least we agree on the facts. Well, that's sharing data. And it has to be done very securely. It's got to be done in such a way that nobody can hack into it. 

We use what are called private permission blockchains for this. But it's really a way-- it's a distributed database so it's a way to say, well, we can share data-- in this case, amongst competitors-- in a very secure way that everybody can look at if they have permissions. And it'll really speed up transactions. 

So we're involved with another company called Champ Title for salvage. There's a blockchain app that can take salvage and cut that time enormously because it's a blockchain-enabled auto title. So you don't have to run paper all over the place. 

So when we look at blockchain, you know, I think one of the things we want to avoid is a technology that's running around looking for a solution. When we look at blockchain, we see it as a technology that enables saving of time, money and giving our customers a better experience. So it's not so much the technology, but it's the saving time, money and having a better customer experience. And blockchain is a key technology for sharing data securely that enables it. And that's in that sort of-- if you think about analytics and IoT and blockchain, you can mold those together to get much better industry solutions. 

JOAN WOODWARD: It really is an exciting time, even for non-technology people like me to hear about the use cases for these technologies. So thank you for being so excited about it. I want to talk about risk-based pricing because this could be changing how-- this impacts agents and brokers out there, I think. So there's debate over the last couple of years, seeking alternatives, reforms to the current risk-based pricing practices in our industry. And how do you see that debate playing out and how it might impact our agent and broker communities? 

PETE MILLER: Well, this is a very big question, and it's something that the III-- the Insurance Information Institute-- is working very hard on because it's been the basis of a lot of what we've been doing. And I think everybody wants everything to be fair and that makes a lot of sense. But to be fair, we need to have good statistical indicators of risk. And risk-based pricing, I think, does that. 

When you look at a good statistic, you know, say, is it correlated to what I'm trying to measure? Like you know, statistics is just a sampling of an activity. And are they correlated and are they causal? Those are the two things. 

And I think when people look at it they go, well, are all these things correlated and causal? Certainly for risk-based pricing, a lot of the factors certainly are. And they get at an underlying trait of a person that I think is a good predictor of other behaviors. So this is a big deal. 

And I think if this goes the other way, I think managing and pricing risk becomes more difficult, frankly to the detriment of policyholders. I think policyholders have benefited from risk-based pricing. I think it's given more accurate assessment of risk, and therefore more fair and equitable pricing of that risk. 

I think the people that are opposed to it, I think that perhaps they have another agenda, frankly. But I think if you look at the mechanics of it and the statistics of it dispassionately, I think it's a very good tool for really assessing and quantifying risk, and therefore its accompanying price. So this is a big deal. And Sean Kevelighan and our folks at the III are working very hard to make sure that at least the folks that are involved in making the decisions around using risk-based pricing are knowledgeable about it. So yeah, I think this is a pretty big thing, and I think we're working hard to make sure that it's well understood, what it does and the benefits of it. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Yeah. And I think your thoughtful consideration and adding to the public discourse and the conversation around this is really important. So thank you for the work that you're doing. Because, as you say, it can be a sensitive topic and we want to be very thoughtful. So thank you. 

All right, on to a bunch of audience questions. We're going to do kind of rapid fire here. We have a lot coming in. So first from Kenneth Paz at A.J. Gallagher-- "What areas of the country are seeing the most growth for these sorts of CPCU-required roles?" So there are areas in the country that are requiring more of these roles that you have seen? Or-- 

PETE MILLER: Yeah, I mean, look. I think insurance is all over the country. So there are places-- but increasingly with remote work-- and I'm not-- it's proportional to population centers, would be it. I mean if you look East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, certainly we have a lot of CPCUs there. But need for CPCUs, I think, is countrywide, and we see that. 

So where the markets are bigger, obviously there's going to be more insurance business and therefore more CPCUs. That doesn't mean they're not required in places with less population and perhaps smaller business centers. So we kind of see it proportionately across the whole country. I think that's what I love about this industry. It underwrites society, and therefore needs to understand and service its customer wherever they are. And I think that's reflected in where we see CPCUs. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, thank you. Another question coming in from Fausto Alvarez with Brown & Brown, says, "I'm interested in the CPCU designation. I'm currently a CIC. Will that help towards the course requirements?" Is that interchangeable or maybe tell us what the CIC is versus the CPCU first. 

PETE MILLER: Yeah, so the CIC is a designation from a different organization than ours. And it's meant for agents and brokers-- primarily agents, I believe. So when we evaluate courses-- and we evaluate all kinds of courses, right? CPA and CFA and CHFC and CLU from the life side-- and we always try to say, well, if we're going to waive parts of CPCU-- which we're happy to do, it just has to be equivalent content. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Yeah. 

PETE MILLER: Otherwise a CPCU is not a CPCU, right? So when we looked at that, we actually took CIC and evaluated against another of our designations which is Accredited Adviser in Insurance. So while you can't waive parts of CPCU, you can waive an Accredited Adviser in Insurance if you have a CIC 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK. "Is The Institutes planning on mandating continuing education for CPCU holders already?" Is that in the works? 

PETE MILLER: We do not-- no, we don't mandate it. There is a CPCU in Good Standing, and to-- the way we go about that is saying, look, we all sign an ethics pledge. Incorporated in that pledge we say, in order to best service our customers, you need to keep current. A way to keep current is to be involved in our CPCU in Good Standing. 

Are you required? So that's always been a requirement to keep current. That has been since 1942 when the CPCU started. For CPCU in Good Standing, we say, we'd like you to report that so that we can acknowledge that. 

Do we take away the designation if you don't? No, we don't. Because best practice tells us we want to encourage this. We don't want to penalize not complying. 

So an increasing number of people are stepping up to the plate. If you see a person's electronic signature and it has CPCU in Good Standing, that to me says that they're taking their pledge very seriously and are involved in our CPCU in Good Standing program. It's very easy to get credits. There's all kinds of cross credits. If you happen to be an agent or a broker with your state-mandated CE requirements-- but I think it's just a commitment to say we're going to stay current so we can serve our customers better. 

JOAN WOODWARD: So not to play devil's advocate, but what would you do-- you have your CPCU but you're not in good standing? So what does it mean to be in good standing? What do you have to do extra after you get your designation to stay in good standing? Can you define that? 

PETE MILLER: Right. So what you needed to do is to report to The Institutes. And a lot of-- if you take anything from us, it's automatically reported. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK. 

PETE MILLER: But you need to report to The Institutes the CE that you've taken. And again, when you sign the ethics pledge, you say you're going to keep your technical knowledge current. So all we're saying is, can you please report that to us? And if you do, then you'll be in good standing, and we think that's valuable. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, that was from Amanda Elkins who asked that question. 

PETE MILLER: Sure. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK. David Woods is asking, "Does the AIC come with a work experience requirement? If so, and for CPCU as well, can one start to study before they meet that work requirement?" 

PETE MILLER: You can start studying the day you join the industry for both of those programs. We have-- the AIC specifically does not have a work requirement. CPCU is the only one with a work requirement. Oftentimes people do start to study and take classes, and then sometimes they complete a CPCU within two years. And then they get the work requirement after two years. 

So certainly you can start studying as soon as you want. CPCU is the only one with a work requirement. And if you get through CPCU faster than two years, then you'll have to wait to get your designation-- to be able to use your designation 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, so it's not sequential. You can do anything at any time. And then I see-- 

PETE MILLER: Anything at any time. 

JOAN WOODWARD: That's very good. This one coming in from Jay Manchengo. “What is the best institute school for disaster planners who are working with FEMA?” That's a good question. 

PETE MILLER: We actually work with FEMA on a program and have actually been involved in some of their strategic planning around this. It's primarily meant for agents and brokers. You can look on The Institutes’ website for it, but we've done a number of designations and courses for FEMA. And just as an aside, we do work with the Treasury and the IF-- Insurance Office and several others as well. So if you look on The Institutes site specifically, there's a course related to FEMA. 

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, great. Pete, the hour has just flown by. It really has. And so I want to thank you so very much for sharing your insights and really talking about all the breadth and depth of the organization. It's really amazing how much work you do with so many different entities. So thank you again for your service. I know being in a nonprofit-- 

PETE MILLER: Thank you. 

JOAN WOODWARD: --is just incredibly invigorating, so congratulations on all the work that you've done over these many years 

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Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Upcoming Webinars: December 7 - The Business Imperative of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with Laura Liswood. December 14 - The Construction Job Site of Today: Risk Management and Innovation. Register: travelersinstitute.org. 

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PETE MILLER: Thank you. 

JOAN WOODWARD: Now I want to talk about some of our upcoming programs for our audience. And take our survey, please. We put those in the chat. We read every single suggestion. I read it personally. So if you want to get to me and tell me what you think of our programming, I'd love to hear it as well as ideas for future topics and future speakers. 

So then on December 7th, we are going to meet with Laura Liswood. She's the co-founder of the Council of Women World Leaders, which is an organization that prime ministers and presidents who are female are-- sit down with Laura twice a year. Angela Merkel and other female leaders around the world, she has met. 

And she's going to talk about the business imperative for diversity and inclusion. And this is really important to understand why it's so important for your business success to have a robust diversity and inclusion program. And she's going to break it down in a way that is very hands-on, useful, tactical for your businesses. 

And then on December 14th, we're going to talk about the evolving risk landscape in the construction industry with our own in-house expert Lisa Morgan. She's the President of Construction, and she's really expert in breaking down what's going on in that industry. So thank you so much for joining us today. 

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Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Watch Replays: travelersinstitute.org. Connect: LinkedIn, Joan K-O-I-S Woodward. Take Our Survey: Link in Chat. #WednesdayswithWoodward. 

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Again, fill out that survey in the chat, and we're going to see you next week with Laura Liswood. Take care, everyone.

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