The new year questionnaire attracted plenty of attention, but few students avoided being caught by the incorrect answer to one question. Waltham Pitglow assesses the response

As regular readers will know, we do like our learning points on the CPD page and not wishing to disappoint readers, we surreptitiously hid one in the new year market practice questionnaire.

We put in a deliberately incorrect answer for Question 5. For reference, the questionnaire was published on 3 January and the answers on the 10 January.

The question asked was very basic:

With reference to insurable interest which of these statements is true:

A. In marine insurance it must exist at the time of loss

B. In fire insurance it must exist only at the time of loss

C. In theft insurance it must exist at the time of inception and the time of loss

D. In money insurance it must exist at all times.

The answer, stated as incorrect was A - in marine insurance insurable interest had to exist only at the time of loss.

The results were interesting and we would ask that you are honest with yourselves when considering this article?

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Well over a thousand readers and staff of readers undertook the exercise, judging from the emails we have received, and there were probably many more. Yet, only three people emailed us to point out the error.

Of those, two deserve special commendation for not only spotting the deliberate error, but also identifying the authority for their argument (the Marine Insurance Act).

Now put yourself into one of the following categories:

  • I did not know that (A) was also correct

  • I did know that (A) was incorrect, but did nothing about it

  • I did think that (A) was incorrect, but did nothing about checking whether I was right or wrong

  • I circulated the questionnaire without checking it myself.

    Let us be clear that the well-respected examining bodies go to great lengths to check the correctness of formal assessment material as do good material writers.

    Questions normally go through at least two experts and are checked against source material.

    Nine steps

    So, the first learning point is that, over the next two years in particular, you will be faced with a raft of so-called specialists who will be offering assessment material for you and your staff and it is vital that you ensure that that material is both correct and robust, particularly if it relates to market practice.

    There are nine steps which you might consider and no doubt you will develop others:

  • If you believe it to be incorrect, then say so and demand to see the source of the correct answer (the authority)

  • Make sure that your staff are encouraged to report back to you if they feel that a question and answer are incorrect or ambiguous (even if they are wrong, it may draw out confusion on a point and highlight a learning need)

  • Never assume that the answers are correct. Check them yourself , or get them checked by a specialist within your firm. A good exercise on this point is to make sure that you have access to source material and whether you are a small or large firm. Create a project team to check against those sources. In itself this will be a good learning exercise. If you are not large enough to create a project team that is not taking the assessment, then undergo the assessment, but check the source material after you have been given the answers

  • Beware of material providers who will not provide a list of source material on request

  • If the assessment is job specific, make sure that it is relative to the job in hand

  • If the question relates to market practice be cautious if it does not concur with your own practice. On the one hand you may be doing things wrong, but on the other , the question writer may not know market practice. If in doubt on market practice you should refer to your trade association for clarification

  • Beware of anyone who tells you that a knowledge and understanding assessment is enough to prove competence. On the job assessment is also required to meet the competence model

  • Remember that both the European Mediation Directive and regulators (GISC and FSA) are looking for job specific competence. If an assessment is not heavily weighted towards the job'specifications of your staff then ask questions. The regulator certainly will if things go wrong

  • Generally, do not takes questions or answers for granted. Have self respect and be aware that in our work with many hundreds of broking firms there has been a high level of up-to-date competence that has often called into question.

    You have a voice, and whether it is to inform the specialist that authorities need to be updated, a question is ambiguous or it is simply a case of exposing below-standard material, you have a right to your view. Ignore that right and the errors and inconsistencies will continue and your staff will be misled.

    But a word of caution: beware of the moaners who find fault to cover for lack of knowledge. Also be alert to the experienced practitioner who may get things wrong.

    Statement source

    It is often going to be the case that an assessment is going to have a simple question and simple answer. Experienced practitioners often read too much into things simply because they deal with more complicated matters on a day-to-day basis.

    Finally, on the question of source material, the whole basis of good professional advice is that you can give a reason why and in terms of professional qualification this means being able to confirm the authoritative source of a statement that you make.

    Many assessments will also be learning tools. Make sure that if there is a gap in your knowledge that you do take time to look up the source of the right answer and spend a few minutes studying the topic in question when it is appropriate.

    Remember that if you get the question wrong twice, your competence to do a particular job may come under much closer scrutiny.

  • This article was supplied by Waltham Pitglow, an insurance investigator specialising in competence

    Using this CPD page

    For the vast majority of practitioners and indeed support and supervisory staff in our industry, CPD is about regular learning and study that is planned, recorded, timed and evaluated.

    If you are a member of a professional body with a CPD requirement then there will be certain rules regarding the quality and nature of study material, and the way in which it is recorded.

    For staff of GISC members this means recording on your individual training file what the learning was, who provided it and when. It might be structured, such as a course, a learning programme or exam study. But it can be unstructured. This form of study encompasses reading the trade press, technical material or taking part in activities to support your professional body.

    Some CPD requirements are points related (a little antiquated) and others require a time value to be allocated.

    For example, it might take one hour to read Insurance Times each week. Most of that could be put as a time value but, in reality, perhaps only an half hour was devoted to learning something. The rule is to be honest with yourself and record the time that is relevant.

    Always take time to make a note of what you felt you gained from the activity. This is useful information for anyone else considering the same activity.

    In response to the popularity of our CPD programme each week's CPD page can now be downloaded from our website. We will be preparing a binder for you to keep these in alongside the results of the exercises.

    Using this CPD page

    For the vast majority of practitioners and indeed support and supervisory staff in our industry, CPD is about regular learning and study that is planned, recorded, timed and evaluated.

    If you are a member of a professional body with a CPD requirement then there will be certain rules regarding the quality and nature of study material, and the way in which it is recorded.

    For staff of GISC members this means recording on your individual training file what the learning was, who provided it and when. It might be structured, such as a course, a learning programme or exam study. But it can be unstructured. This form of study encompasses reading the trade press, technical material or taking part in activities to support your professional body.

    Some CPD requirements are points related (a little antiquated) and others require a time value to be allocated.

    For example, it might take one hour to read Insurance Times each week. Most of that could be put as a time value but, in reality, perhaps only an half hour was devoted to learning something. The rule is to be honest with yourself and record the time that is relevant.

    Always take time to make a note of what you felt you gained from the activity. This is useful information for anyone else considering the same activity.

    In response to the popularity of our CPD programme each week's CPD page can now be downloaded from our website. We will be preparing a binder for you to keep these in alongside the results of the exercises.

    To download a PDF of this article as it appears in the magazine click here .

    You will need Adobe Acrobat

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