Oct 4, 2013 | News
Book Your Seat Now in an ILS Virtual Classroom Insurance Training Program.
With the ILS Virtual Classroom insurance training programs you could be finished your Level 1 insurance licensing and ready to start your career in the Canadian insurance industry by Nov. 29. No need to wait until the new year or a new semester to complete your insurance training!
The ILS Introduction to General Insurance Virtual Classroom program starts Nov. 4 and runs for four weeks. The ILS Introduction to General Insurance has a pass rate of more than 80% among students using the Virtual Classroom study program. The ILS Introduction to General Insurance licensing program is valid in BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The virtual classroom program also offers Fundamentals of Insurance Exam Preparation; and CAIB 1, 2 3 or 4 Exam Preparation. You must register by Nov. 1 to write the CAIB exams upon completion of your ILS exam prep class.
All of the ILS Virtual Classroom courses include:
- a daily assisted learning calendar – to keep you on track, we provide a study calendar that breaks down the insurance training courses into easy-to-manage daily study modules;
- online video courses – it’s like having a personal tutor for your insurance training, with the added benefit of being able to pause, rewind and review at the touch of a button;
- daily email quiz questions – questions on the previous day’s readings help to enforce key concepts;
- weekly practice exams – weekly practice exams simulate a real exam environment, so you can become comfortable with the exam process;
- An online discussion forum and review videos – to help keep you focussed and on track.
The virtual classroom gives you the flexibility to complete the work on your own time, but also gives you the tools to keep you on track to complete your course in just four weeks.
Register today at ILScorp.com and be on your way to a rewarding insurance career. Once you’ve registered, the ILS staff will be in touch to get you set up and ready to learn. For more information call 1-800-404-2211.
Oct 1, 2013 | News
A series of 5 new Homeowners Insurance Policy courses designed for insurance agents and adjusters has been launched by ILS. These online insurance training courses, each good for one continuing education credit hour, are accredited in BC, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
While modern home insurance is seen as an essential part of a typical Canadian family’s insurance coverage, that hasn’t always been case.
Up until the mid-1960s, homeowners rarely purchased the insurance coverages we take for granted today. In fact, many homeowners purchased coverage only for their dwelling, believing their belongings had little value. Also, as no one expected to be sued, many homeowners resisted all efforts to sell them personal liability insurance. The Homeowners Forms of the 1970s helped to solve the problems of inadequate coverages and limits. These forms included all three coverages and more. However, insurers still had a problem: people were under-valuing their homes. This problem took many years to solve and it was not until the 1980s that valuation guides were required to be completed for all new applications for a homeowners policy.
The five-part series, written by Steve Hawrishok, includes courses covering:
1. Property Coverages Agreements & Definitions
2. Property Coverages A-D
3. Extensions of Coverage
4. Insured Perils & Exclusions
5. Basis of Claim Payment & Other Terms
All five courses are now included in the general and adjuster continuing education course catalogues at no extra charge to ILS subscribers. They can also be purchased individually.
Go online at www.ilscorp.com or call us a 1-800-404-2211 to join the more than 23,000 other Canadian insurance professionals who are learning with ILScorp every year.
Sep 25, 2013 | News
It’s quiz time: While driving your SUV, you are involved in a minor, low-speed accident. Fortunately, no one is injured, but there is some damage to your vehicle – more than just a scratch – and maybe to someone else’s car or property.
Do you inform your auto insurance company about it, or keep the matter quiet and pay any repair costs out-of-pocket?
Concerns about auto insurance rate hikes are often the determining factor behind your answer, according to a Consumer Reports study. But there are some important factors to weigh as you determine your best course of action.
When to report the accident:
Seven in 10 auto accidents in the US in 2011 involved at least two vehicles, according to US Department of Transportation data, as did 52 per cent of the car insurance claims filed in recent years by more than 31,000 Consumer Reports subscribers surveyed last summer.
If your accident falls into that category, you should always report it – especially if you may have been at fault – because your insurance coverage protects you against liability for harming others.
Your insurance company and legal considerations might require you to report in such cases, but its also in your own best interest to officially document the facts of the case when you’re involved with a stranger in a potential damage claim situation.
Even if you could work out a private arrangement with another reasonable person to keep the auto insurance companies out of it, repairs often cost more than people anticipate.
For example, in a test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, when a 2010 Toyota Corolla rear-ended a 2010 Toyota RAV4 at 10 mph, the Corolla had more than $3,800 in front-end damage and the SUV incurred more than $6,000 in rear damage, because of the vehicles’ bumper height mismatch.
The Corolla’s damage looked minor, and the RAV4’s was visually almost imperceptible. In 14 similar trials, the cheapest damage in 14 involving seven vehicle pairings produced almost $3,000 in total losses – six times the typical $500 collision deductible.
In addition injuries to you or other people involved in the accident, may not be apparent immediately. The adrenaline rush accompanying even a low-impact crash can mask injury symptoms, and soft-tissue damage can take 24 to 48 hours to show up. Bogus injury claims are another possibility, which will be difficult for you to prove without help from your insurance company.
If you don’t report your accident immediately and are hit with big costs down the road, your auto insurance company might not cover you because their window of opportunity to investigate the claim has been lost.
When it’s a toss-up
When the damage for an accident occurs only to your property, you have a more difficult choice make.
Filing a claim could produce a tempting payout, but you need to consider the unknown factor of how your claim might impact your premiums.
According to Consumer Reports, consumers won’t know in advance how much their premiums will increase, and for how long, in order to weigh that against a claim payout. But among the survey respondents, seven per cent of claimants said they felt their insurer unfairly raised their premium as a result of a claim.
Most states regulate “chargeable” accidents, which are loss payouts that auto insurers are allowed to count against your driving record in calculating your risk and setting your premiums. The rules vary, but payout thresholds of $500 to $1,000 are typical, which means that accidents costing the insurer less than that can’t raise your rate.
Major insurers, including ICBC Autoplan, will also have their own loyalty programs, which give “accident forgiveness awards,” based on how long you’ve been with the company and your good driving and payment record.
When not to report
If the damage is minor and confined to your own vehicle and property, maybe from backing into your own fence or garage door, you’re typically not required to report it to your insurance company if you choose not to make a claim.
It also doesn’t make economic sense to do so if the repair cost is smaller than or not sufficiently bigger than your collision coverage deductible.
Excerpted from the Buffalo News
B.C. insurance agents – are you looking to enhance your knowledge of ICBC’s Autoplan programs? ILScorp now offers two new Autoplan courses, one designed for newcomers to the auto insurance industry, and another more advanced course. Learn more at ILScorp.com
Sep 18, 2013 | News
Is the upcoming general insurance continuing education deadline causing in stress in your office? It’s human nature to wait until the last minute, so Ontario Insurance agents – we’re here for you. Ask around your office, and you’ll probably find five or more people who need to complete their CE hours by the Sept. 30 deadline, which is why ILScorp offers group subscriptions to our online continuing education courses.
If you have a group of five or more employees who need to complete their CE courses in order to meet insurance licensing requirements, then a group subscription to ILScorp’s online General Insurance continuing education courses may be the perfect solution to your agency’s insurance training needs.
ILScorp provides online insurance training for more than 22,000 Canadian insurance professionals each year, and the General Insurance subscription offers access to more than 160 courses and 300+ credits hours. Individual subscriptions are priced at only $175, but with a group of five or more, save $50/pp. Group members get unlimited one-year access to ILScorp’s extensive General Insurance CE course catalogue. Individual subscriptions provide six months of access.
Why choose ILS?
- All of our courses are accredited and are written by insurance training experts.
- Our text and video courses engage the user so the learning experience is both interesting and entertaining.
- Access your online insurance CE courses from anywhere you have an Internet connection.
- 160+ courses means you’ll find something relevant to your career.
- 50+ courses have been recently updated and re-accredited.
- Buy now for instant access. Register or renew online and get started today.
Learn more about group subscriptions at ILScorp.com or call 1-800-404-2211 and get started today.
Continuing Education with ILScorp – Fast, Easy, Done!
Sep 17, 2013 | News
Fall is a busy time here at the ILScorp offices with live classes, new courses being launched and continuing education deadlines coming up in Ontario and Alberta.
We want to wish good luck to the approximately 30 students taking part in West Coast Training’s Live Immersion Class in Vancouver this week. By Friday, they’ll be writing their ILS Introduction to General Insurance level 1 licensing exams, and be ready to start their insurance careers! These classes have an average pass rate of 80-85%, thanks in part to the dynamic insurance training by Todd Hochban. But even if you can’t make it to Vancouver, you can still learn from Todd through the ILS online video version of the insurance licensing program.
Some of our team will also be heading to the Westin Bear Mountain Resort in Victoria in a few weeks to host a customized 5-day insurance training course for a group of commercial insurance agents from across Western Canada.
Our development staff have been working hard as we’ve launched new online courses in recent weeks, including: two courses for ICBC Autoplan insurance agents in BC; and an Introduction to Public Sector Procurement, including one specific to Atlantic Canada. These courses, along with the more than 50 recently updated and re-accredited Continuing Education courses, can all be purchased from the ILScorp website.
And the phones and emails are keeping our customer service staff busy, as insurance professionals in Ontario are nearing their continuing education deadline of Sept. 30. This is followed a month later by the Alberta insurance CE deadline of Oct.31. Our staff are here to help Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 pm Pacific Time at 1-800-404-2211, or you can register for your courses online anytime.
You can always follow our blog to learn more about what’s new at ILS and in the insurance industry, or sign up for the ILStv daily or weekly newsletters and get Canadian insurance news delivered to your inbox.
So that’s what we’ve been up to, now how about you? Are you settling into the busy fall season? Do you see an upswing in business after the summer? Leave us a comment below!
