Increase Your Salary with the CPCU® Designation (5 Tips)
Insurance education is an absolute necessity in the property casualty insurance industry. Education is crucial to improving the quality of the industry, which is why we focus on educating as many as possible about the benefit of insurance designations, in particular, education about the CPCU® designation, the most prominent insurance designation in the industry.
Although the CPCU® designation provides a number of advantages, the number one tangible benefit of the CPCU® designation is to increase your salary. You can increase your salary in a number of ways whether you’ve completed your CPCU® or are still working on passing your exams; below we provide five simple tips to leverage your CPCU® designation to increase your salary.
1. CPCU® Bonus
Before you go asking for a raise or promotion, check with your manager or HR department to see if your employer offers any compensation or bonuses for earning your CPCU® designation. Often, companies will offer hefty bonuses as high as 10 or 20% of your current salary for completing the CPCU® and some may even offer an annual salary increase. Some companies may also pay for your travel expenses to attend the CPCU® conferment ceremony so be sure to ask about your company’s current policy before you request a raise or promotion!
2. Request a Promotion
A great way to increase your annual salary is to request a promotion. The best time to request a promotion is when you stand out from your peers. The CPCU® designation gives you a great opportunity to request a promotion. At this point, you are one of very few employees in the industry to hold the CPCU® designation as only 4% of the entire industry holds their CPCU®.
The first step in requesting a promotion is to request a meeting with your manager to discuss how the CPCU® designation has helped to improve your knowledge and prepare you for additional responsibilities and tasks.
To help you start this conversation, use our template below. Edit the template to list some of your specific achievements and current responsibilities
“Throughout the past two years I have worked very hard to proactively enhance my insurance knowledge by pursuing the CPCU® ®designation in order to prepare myself for additional responsibilities. This designation has helped me gather tremendous knowledge and practical skills which have directly impacted the quality of my work including my effort on
- List a recent project and the work you completed
- List a recent project and the work you completed
- List a recent project and the work you completed
I believe that I have worked very hard to prove myself as a diligent and capable employee with the ability to perform all tasks of my current role according to your expectations. I have given my best shot in advancing my skills and knowledge to prepare myself for additional projects and I find myself in the position to take on additional responsibilities.
For this reason, I request to discuss a promotion which could provide me the opportunity to take up new responsibilities and further advance my career. I believe this decision would be beneficial to me as well as the organization as my education and quality of work have put me in a position to handle advanced authority and responsibilities.
I hope that you would accept my request and assist me towards achieving my career goals.
Thank you for your time and consideration.”
3. Request a Raise
Similar to asking for a promotion, using the CPCU® designation to ask for a raise is a great way to increase your annual salary. Requesting a raise will allow you to earn additional salary without necessarily increasing your current responsibilities or tasks.
When asking for a raise, your main focus should be on your experience and quality of work. Discuss how your advanced education has helped you to become a property casualty subject matter expert and explain how your advanced knowledge and pursuit of additional education deserves increased compensation.
To help you start this conversation, use our template below. Edit the template to list some of your specific responsibilities and describe how your advanced knowledge helps to further improve your job performance.
“During the past year I’ve worked very hard to enhance my insurance knowledge by pursuing the CPCU® designation. I am aware that my performance is closely tied to the team’s performance and I believe my enhanced education has helped me to immediately improve the quality of our team’s work.
This designation has helped me to become a subject matter expert in the property casualty field as I’ve learned to make more educated decisions which directly correlate with our team’s success. I plan to continue my commitment to continued learning and I’m confident that my enhanced experience and knowledge will allow me to undertake extra assignments.
However, my salary is still on the same level since earning my CPCU® designation. This is a prestigious designation held by only 4% of all employees in the industry. The average salary for an employee with their CPCU® designation is $74,338 (See here for link to position specific salary averages). My current salary of ____ is still below the industry average for the professional education that I possess.
Simply because of my enhanced qualifications and increased contribution, I strongly believe that I’ve earned a pay raise.
For this reason, I humbly ask for a meeting to review and discuss my performance and the salary increase that reflects the above issues.
Thank you in advance”
4. Apply Your Knowledge
Your employer will give credit where credit is due. One way to increase your salary is by simply applying your advanced knowledge to improve your performance on the job, which will help lead to raises and promotions.
Use the knowledge you have gained from the CPCU® designation to think outside the box on projects and use it to think about the insurance product like others in your position may not. For instance, if you work as a sales agent, use your knowledge from the CPCU® designation to enhance your pitch. Use your knowledge to provide better customer service or by instilling confidence in your customers that you fully understand the insurance product and you are the most knowledgeable insurance professional.
To help prove yourself as a capable employee, talk to your manager and ask for additional tasks such as leading a project or managing a small team. Discuss with your manager how the CPCU® designation gives you the knowledge to fully understand and perform your job.
5. Find Another Job
This is the worst-case scenario. If your current employer is unwilling to increase your salary or give you additional responsibilities, it may be time to look elsewhere.
A prestigious insurance designation, such as the CPCU®, will set you apart from other resumes. Since the CPCU® is held by only about 4% of the industry, this designation shows that you are one of the most knowledgeable individuals in your field and can be used as a great bargaining tool to negotiate salary. The average CPCU® salary of employees in the property casualty industry is $74,338. With a few years of work experience, a CPCU® designation holder should be capable of negotiating a higher starting salary than the average CPCU® salary. For a breakdown of CPCU® salary by position, see our CPCU® salary blog
Free Practice Exam
Ready to get started studying? We’re here to help (for free). Download one of our free CPCU® practice exams to get a feel for the type of content you will be studying.
Download: Free Practice Exam (CPCU® | ARM™ | AINS™ | API™)
More Information
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Disclaimer
CPCU® exams are administered by the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (“The Institutes”). AssociatePI does not administer the actual exams, we are an independent resource of free content, advice, and study material for professional insurance education. This blog is intended for informational purposes only, to inform prospective students of the benefit of the CPCU® designation.
CPCU® and API™ are trademarks of the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (“The Institutes”). AssociatePI LLC is not affiliated with, associated with, endorsed by or otherwise supported or recognized by The Institutes in any way. AssociatePI LLC is not authorized by The Institutes to offer courses, practice examinations, or any other resources related to the Institutes’ designations or other programs.
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