Why You Need to Get a CLU® Designation

When consumers, especially those with higher net worth, look to purchase life insurance as part of their portfolio, they want more than just another financial representative reading terms of a contract. They prefer an expert that understands different policies and how to use them to best serve their financial aspirations. In the world of life insurance, the Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®) is that expert, as he/she holds the world's foremost insurance designation and demonstrates an utmost dedication to ethical service and superior knowledge of the trade. If you want to accelerate your career and position yourself as an industry expert, here are four reasons for you to invest in earning a CLU® designation.

Knowledge to Guide Higher Net Worth Clients

Earning a CLU® designation gives you the knowledge to serve high net worth clients using life insurance as a business planning tool.  With a more in-depth understanding of life insurance and risk management, you can provide more optimal solutions for a broader range of clients. Bottom line, a CLU® designation provides the knowledge and training necessary to provide "a holistic and comprehensive approach" to the complex and custom life insurance needs of more high-end clientele.

Improved Reputation

Dating its origin back to the late 1920s, the CLU® designation is associated with the most ethical and elite financial planners in the world. CLU® courses incorporate 400 hours of training and intensive examinations. Those who receive the designation must commit to 30 hours of continuing education every year to maintain CLU® status, according to the standards of the Certification Committee of the Board of Trustees of The American College of Financial Services. Clients and fellow professionals acknowledge that those financial advisors with a CLU® designation guarantee the highest level of ethics and professionalism in financial planning.

More Diverse Client Services

CLU® courses provide the training and expertise necessary to offer more diverse services to clients. In addition to gaining a better understanding of the legal vagaries of life insurance contracts and beneficiaries, training focuses on real estate planning and arranging wills and trusts based on a variety of financial, retirement, and succession planning issues.  Whatever your specialty when pursuing the CLU® designation, you will gain additional skills and knowledge necessary to offer clients more services than previously possible.

Study At Your Own Pace

Those pursuing the CLU® are able to attend traditional classroom or online webinar classes. Individuals with more limited schedules due to career and family can attend The College's Flexible Self-Paced Program to earn the CLU® on their own time. This program includes digital textbooks, video lectures that can be streamed online anytime, the ability to discuss the course with a professor online, and access to a variety of online study aids.

The accessibility of the self-study program means that you can start pursuing the CLU® immediately. It's simple: learn at your own pace, receive "one of the oldest and most respected credentials in financial services" and begin offering your clients better guidance and more services as an elite financial professional. To learn more about how to get a CLU®, request more information today!