Q: What are the new completer rules for earning the ASLI designation?

A: Beginning in January 2007, you can earn the ASLI designation by passing the exams for the following two new courses:

ASLI 163          Surplus Lines Insurance Operations .
ASLI 164          Surplus Lines Insurance Products and passing the exams for any two of the following elective courses:

CPCU 510        Foundations of Risk Management, Insurance, and Professionalism
CPCU 530        The Legal Environment of Insurance
CPCU 540        Business and Financial Analysis for Risk Management and Insurance Professionals

AIS 25              Delivering Insurance Services

AIC 33             The Claims Environment
AIC 34             Workers' Compensation and Managing Bodily Injury Claims
AIC 35             Property Loss Adjusting
AIC 36             Liability Claim Practices

ARM 54           Risk Assessment
ARM 55           Risk Control
ARM 56           Risk Financing

AU 65             Commercial Underwriting: Principles and Property
AU 66             Commercial Underwriting: Liability and Advanced Techniques

|AAI 83           Agency Operations and Sales Management

APA 91           Principles of Premium Auditing
APA 92           Premium Auditing Applications

AIAF 111        Statutory Accounting for Property - Casualty Insurers
AIAF 112        Insurance Information Systems
AIAF 113        Insurance Company Finance

AIT 132          Insurance Uses of Technology
AIT 134          The Strategic Management of Information

ARe 141          Reinsurance Practices*
ARe 144          Reinsurance Principles and Practices

* Courses no longer offered, but which satisfy ASLI elective requirements.

If you hold the Registered Professional Liability Underwriter (RPLU) designation, you can omit the elective courses and earn the ASLI designation by passing only ASLI 163 and 164. If you earn the ASLI designation in this way, however, you must complete an Academic Credit Request Form and pay the Institutes a waiver application fee of $75. To obtain a copy of this form, go to the following Web page: www.aicpcu.org/students/Pub1icationsForms.htm.  Then click on CPCU/IIA Academic Credit Request Form.

Q: When will the exams for ASLI 163 and 164 become available?

A: You can take the exam for either or both of the new courses beginning on January 15, 2007.

Q: How much longer will the ASLI 161 and 162 exams be available?

A: The ASLI 161 and 162 exams will be available only until the end of the last testing window in 2006. This testing window begins October 15 and ends December 15, 2006. (The other testing windows are January 15-March 15, April 15-June 15, and July 15-September 15.)

Q: If I complete ASLI 161 but not ASLI 162 (or vice versa) before 2007, can I earn the ASLI designation by taking a combination of the old and new ASLI courses (such as ASLI 161 and ASLI l64)?

A: No. The new courses are not equivalent to the old ones and therefore cannot be combined for purposes of completing the ASLI designation. You must complete the ASLI designation under either the old (pre-2007) completer rules or the new (post-2006) completer rules.

Q: If I pass both ASLI 161 and 162, but neither of the electives, before 2007, can I earn the ASLI designation under the old completer rules by passing the elective courses after 2006?

A: Yes. As long as you pass ASLI 161 and 162 before 2007, you can complete at any later time by passing two elective courses in accordance with the old completer rules.

Q: If I've already passed one or both of the elective courses under the old completer rules but do not pass ASLI 161 and 162 before 2007, can I complete the ASLI designation by passing ASLI 163 and 164 in 2007 or later and using one or both of the elective courses I passed before 2007?

A: The answer depends on which elective courses you passed. Many of the elective courses listed in the old completer rules are also listed in the new completer rules. If an elective course you passed before 2007 is listed in the new completer rules, that course could be one of your electives under the new completer rules. The key point is that if you are using ASLI 163 and 164 to complete the ASLI designation, you need to satisfy the elective requirement of the new completer rules.

Q: How does the elective requirement of the new completer rules differ from the elective requirement of the old completer rules?

A: The old completer rules have two categories of elective courses: coverage courses and operational courses. (To see the specific courses in each category, go to the following Web page: www.aicpcu.org/flyers/asli.htm.) Under the old completer rules, you must pass one course from each category. The new completer rules have a single list of elective courses, as shown in the first Q&A. Under the new completer rules, you must pass any two of the listed courses.

Q: Why has the elective coverage course category been omitted from the new completer rules?

A: The new ASLI 164 is a coverage course designed specifically for people who work in surplus lines. This takes the place of the coverage course elective under the old completer rules.

Accordingly, all except one (CPCU 510) of the elective coverage courses under the old completer rules have been eliminated from the list of elective courses under the new completer rules. Most of the elective courses listed in the new completer rules are taken from the list of operational electives in the old completer rules, but they are no longer labeled as such. CPCU 510 and some additional courses (ARM 54, 55, and 56, and CPCU 530 and 540) have been added to the new list of electives.

Q: How does ASLI 163 compare with ASLI 161 and 162?

A: ASLI 163 is a comprehensive course on surplus lines insurance operations. It therefore covers all the topics previously included in ASLI 161 and 162, other than product-related topics that are now included in ASLI 164. Together, ASLI 163 and 164 cover substantially more topics than ASLI 161 and 162. This is the main reason why the old and new courses cannot be combined for purposes of completing the ASLI designation.

Q: When will the study materials (textbooks and course guides) for ASLI 163 and 164 become available?

A: The study materials will be available for sale by August 2006 so that students will have sufficient time to study for exams administered in the January 15-March 15 exam window in 2007, when the ASLI 163 and 164 exams will first become available.

Q: How can I get more information about the ASLI program, buy study materials, or register for an exam?

A: You can either call the Institutes' Customer Service Department at 1-800-644-2101, or visit the Institutes' Web site: www.aicpcu.org.

For addition information contact:

American Institute for CPCU / Insurance Institute of America
(800) 644-2101