New Certification Helps Producers Bring Risk Management Strategies To Employee Benefits And Wellness

Asheville, NC (CompNewsNetwork) - The Institute of Benefit & Wellness Advisors (IBWA) has been launched to help insurance professionals integrate employee benefits with wellness. The organization is based in Asheville, NC.

“It has become increasingly clear that Workers' Compensation, Employee Benefits, and Wellness are the three faces of employee health and the cost of that health,” states Preston Diamond, executive director of the new organization. “This means property & casualty insurance producers must be equipped to bring a unified approach to employers.” 

Diamond adds that with the new Health Care Reform legislations, employers will have “an enormous need for expert advice on benefits and wellness.” The declining value agents have felt from employers by spread sheeting and quoting will be even further diminished. The agents of the future are quickly arming themselves with new ways to attack the true root causes that are driving up healthcare costs.  

Diamond is well known in the insurance industry for establishing the Institute of WorkComp Professionals (IWCP) nine years ago, a group that has trained and certified more than 1,800 insurance professionals.

As a sister organization to the Institute of WorkComp Professionals, the new Institute will also offer a designation, Certified Benefit & Wellness Advisor (CBWA). In describing the training program, Diamond said, “There are six one-hour online modules with an exam at the end of each one and a final exam following the sixth module.” To help designation recipients hone their presentation skills, Diamond says they will have the opportunity to submit 15-minute video presentations for peer review. 

“It's rare in the insurance business for producers to learn from each other, which is one of the goals of the program,” says Diamond, who also points out that there will be an online Forum so producers can exchange ideas with each other.

The six online curriculum modules for the CBWA designation include: Beyond Health Care Reform: the CBWA Solution and Advantage, Risk Management and Wellness, Risk Management and Compliance; The Last Step in Risk Management: The Insurance Policy; Leveraging Your CBWA Designation; and Creating Agency Processes to Keep Clients for Life. In addition, there is an annual update required to maintain the designation.

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