Posted on: 26 April 2016
A new qualification for professional indemnity practitioners in the UK market has been developed by the International Underwriting Association (IUA). The first candidates have already taken the examination and new courses are now being made available.
The IUA’s Professional Indemnity Forum (PIF) decided to establish its own test in response to requests from the association’s member companies. It is designed to provide entry-level candidates with a grounding in the subject. A specifically designed course study text and training modules explain the main professional indemnity classes of business, how to understand and draft policy provisions and key legal concepts affecting the market.
Chris Jones, IUA’s Director of Market Services said: “The insurance industry is already well served by a number of general liability qualifications, but IUA companies have felt for some time that a dedicated examination would be useful for professional indemnity practitioners. Members of the group have therefore put together a study programme that enables candidates to develop a better understanding of the key risks within this class and the structure of the market.”
Russell Newell (AmTrust), Chairman of the PIF Test Steering Committee, stated: “The first staging of the examination has been a success with more than 40 individuals from a range of underwriting, claims, broking and legal backgrounds taking the paper. We now look forward to welcoming more candidates and evolving the syllabus to ensure it remains practical and relevant. As part of this we will be engaging with other market associations and interested parties to ensure that the Test is widely published in London and the UK regions. There is also the potential to export the Test to other jurisdictions.”
Daniel Prince (Hamilton Underwriting Limited), Chairman of the IUA’s PIF commented: “Our controlled and strong start of PIF Test Part 1 provides an excellent platform to further develop and promote the qualification. We are already a long way to completing Part 2 which will concentrate on the underwriting characteristics of key professions and will run concurrently with the first Test. We look forward to introducing this in the early Autumn 2016 in addition to a further run of the Part 1 Test.”
Les Telford (Senior Underwriter, Markel), who took the Part 1 Test said: “Professional indemnity accounts for a significant proportion of the London liability market but, until now, the only way young practitioners could get to know the class was to learn on the job. As part of the rollout, I was delighted to take Part 1 of the PIF Test. It was a true test of knowledge, you needed to read the text book and do your homework even if, like me, you have 30 years in the market. The great thing is that the high quality study texts and training modules will give entry level candidates a short cut to a really robust knowledge of the class. It’s a good development for the market.”
The PIF Test comes with self-study texts which are supported by training days organised by IMC Events Ltd. A course syllabus is available from Chris Jones, Director of Market Services at the IUA (email piftest@iua.co.uk).
