When I filed my blog entry the other day about how the insurance industry should launch an initiative to educate high school students about the basics of coverage, I totally forgot about the noble efforts of the Insurance Education Institute, which talked about their program in one of last year's editions of NU! Click on to read the exchange I had with their dedicated president, Larry Forrester. As Larry outlines, they do fine work, but they need more support for sure to make a dent in this problem. I will help publicize their cause as best I can. The rest is up to the industry. Sorry, Larry!
From Larry L. Forrester, President & CEO of the Insurance Education Institute:
Sam, I was puzzled and surprised to see your comments on your blog regarding the industry's need to educate consumers, and the fact that the industry was not taking the initiative to provide that education--especially since you and I have discussed the Insurance Education Institute programs to educate young people about insurance, risk management and career opportunities.
You may recall the articles in NU back in April 2005 and on Nov. 27, 2006, talking about the program and mission of the IEI.
Once I got over my organizational hurt feelings that no one seems to know about the industry's initiative to educate young people about insurance, I realize that we have done a lousy job of telling the industry what the IEI is doing to educate tomorrow's consumer about insurance and managing risk.
Help!!!!
In 2006 alone, we educated 204 high school teachers about insurance and sent them back to the classroom armed with lesson plans, resources and accurate knowledge on how insurance works.
We project those 204 teachers will teach over 15,000 students about insurance in one academic year.
Teachers are logging on to the IEI website (www.theiei.org) downloading lesson plans and resources from organizations such as the III at the rate of 80,000 per month.
Each month over 2,000 high school teachers download lesson plans on auto, homeowners, life, health and careers in insurance.
Just in the last 18 months 2,500 DVDs titled Risk Responsibility Reality, produced by the IEI, have been mailed to high school teachers for use in the classroom.
Just yesterday I made a presentation about what the insurance industry is doing to educate young people about insurance, to the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, which was also attended by the Secretary of the Treasury.
The Commission was created by Congress in 2004 to launch financial literacy programs focused on all age groups. The Administrator for the Commission, Dan Iannicola, carried the IEI message recently to Japan and Turkey.
An organization called Jump$tart was formed by the financial services industry 10 years ago to address financial literacy. The IEI is not only a board member, but in 2006 convinced the coalition to incorporate insurance into their high school standards for financial education.
Jump$tart is the primary source for curriculum development for financial education in the high schools. At least 10 states have now adopted the standards.
The IEI is funded by over 200 insurance companies and seven of the top 10.
SAM RESPONDS:
I sincerely apologize for my brain-lock in forgetting about the noble efforts of your group.
However, while not minimizing what you are doing, these numbers, you must admit, are a relative dent in the problem, with tens of thousands of teachers and millions of students out there.
It’s a start, but it should be part of every curriculum nationwide, part of the standard curriculum, along with teaching on other personal finance issues.
I'll help in any way I can to promote awareness of your program, starting with another article soon in the pages of NU!
LARRY GETS THE LAST WORD:
I agree, Sam, however we have learned that regardless of how important we think the subject is, the academic curriculum is under such pressure from "No Child Left Behind" and other demands to improve performance and outcomes that teachers and administrators are resistant to incorporating any curriculum that requires a new course of study.
Our approach is to develop material that can be incorporated into current curriculum of courses such as business, economics, math, family and consumer science and driver training.
We have seen success, and the number of teachers responding by adding insurance content is growing exponentially.
In addition, we have partnered with student organizations--such as the Distributive Clubs of America (with over 200,000 student members), the Business Professionals of America (with over 50,000 student members), Junior Achievement (two million students)--to incorporate insurance content.
With DECA and BPA we are developing competitive events focused on insurance topics and issues.
The final point is that you can do about anything with enough money. I can tell you I have met with the CEOs or senior officers of all of the major insurance companies.
As noted, most are supportive, but the IEI still operates with a budget of about $1 million.
Comments (6)
Sam,
The Insurance Education Institute, and its over 200 insurance company supporters, appreciates the attention you are bringing to the need for the industry to be more aggressive in educating the consumers about insurance and how the risk transfer process works.
The IEI focuses on educating young people about insurance and risk management. The pathway to educating the students is primarily through the teachers. The IEI fully funds seven summer institutes at universities around the country. The teachers devote two weeks to learning about auto, home, life, health and careers in insurance.
The teachers return to the classroom fully prepared to educate their students about managing risk and their personal responsibility in the risk transfer process.
We welcome your readers to visit the IEI website at www.theiei.org to see first hand the myriad of teaching materials available to teachers across the country.
Teachers have been downloading over 2,000 (per month)lesson plans, resources and articles from the Web site for classroom use.
Recently the IEI board has taken the resopnsibility to inform, educate and recruit young people into the insurance industry to address the growing workforce shortages in the industry. A new Web site for students is under construction to enlighten young people about the opportunities for fullfillment and rewards as an insurance professional.
Our challenge is to attract sufficient funding to expand the institutes to more locations. We have not even scratched the potential with only 200 companies providing financial support.
We need an engaged industry at the agent, company and broker level to reach a level of performance that can make a real difference in the way the public views the insurance process.
Posted by Larry Forrester | May 17, 2007 9:48 AM
Posted on May 17, 2007 09:48
Interesting, the IEI and 200 insurance company supporters are only able to reach 204 teachers in a year. That's just a little better than one teacher per company contact.
Shame on Sam for not remembering what he put in NU, but shame on IEI for not having a more effective outreach program.
Posted by susan | May 17, 2007 2:58 PM
Posted on May 17, 2007 14:58
Notwithstanding the efforts put forth by the IEI, the results don’t seem to be there.
Not only is the general population badly in need of basic knowledge regarding insurance, the same holds true for most finance and business graduates from our colleges. Even graduate students and CPAs I’ve encountered when leading insurance seminars have very little knowledge or experience with insurance.
When you consider how important insurance is to a capitalist economy, this shortcoming is truly remarkable.
While several institutes of higher learning offer degrees in insurance and risk management, it seems to me that most colleges and universities do not even offer insurance courses as electives, let alone require such as part of a core curriculum. There is even less done at the high school level.
Our industry would do well to promote a better understanding of societal contributions we collectively make. Our schools and colleges could provide a great place to start. But, so far, we haven’t seen much accomplished.
Posted by Peter Viscardi | May 18, 2007 10:06 AM
Posted on May 18, 2007 10:06
I understand your point, Susan, and I agree we must do a better job of reaching teachers and students. The issue is funding, so we must convince more comnpanies, agents and brokers to get involved.
Another key benchmark to evaluate the program is the number of students that are taught insurance principles.
Those 204 teachers are projected to reach over 15,000 students during the academic year. We have educated over 3,000 teachers totally. Even considering retirements, job shifts, etc., the number is still encouraging.
Bottom line, the approach is effective but the resources are too limited.
We will continue to ratchet up our efforts in communications and programs.
Posted by Larry Forrester | May 18, 2007 11:09 AM
Posted on May 18, 2007 11:09
It is interesting that most people talk about how little is being done to educate the public and suggest the efforts being expended by organizations such as the IEI are of minor significance.
It is important to understand that you first must create the framework to launch an education effort, and then fund the initiative to get the desired results.
The organizations and structures are in place to make a difference in the level of the public's understanding of our business. We have too many people on the sidelines and not enough engaged in helping to solve the problem.
Posted by Larry Forrester | May 31, 2007 4:22 PM
Posted on May 31, 2007 16:22
I find it interesting that several comments relate to the fact the IEI has not done enough.
As indicated by Mr. Forrester, the IEI has the structure and the programs to help provide a solution to this issue, but only if the funding is there to allow them to carry out their mission in a broader and accelerated fashion.
Many insurers and reinsurers support the mission of the IEI, but yet many don't. I urge everyone who is connected with the insurance industry to help fund the mission of the IEI
Posted by Barbara Baurer | June 13, 2007 12:21 PM
Posted on June 13, 2007 12:21