CIRMS

COMMUNITY INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST

BY: MS. KIMBERLY LILLEY, CIRMS, CMCA—BERG INSURANCE AGENCY

I am lucky. I work for an organization that was involved in insuring community associations in California ever since they became a “thing” in the state. Our founder trained many of the agents and brokers that serve associations in Southern California today. So, when the option of obtaining my Community Insurance and Risk Management Specialist (CIRMS – pronounced “Surms”) designation presented itself, my company was on board.

Certain requirements need to be met in order to receive and keep the designation, and then there are additional items, including following the code of ethics and getting continuing education.

First off, an insurance professional needs to have five years of experience in the community association insurance field. Yes, the community association insurance field. While insurance has certain aspects that translate from one industry to the next, it is imperative that a person truly understand the needs of a community association in order for them to help the association mitigate risk and loss. You would not ask a divorce attorney to service your association and expect them to understand the ins and outs of assessment collection or exclusive use common area requirements, would you? Insurance professionals need a similar level of familiarity with community associations in order to be effective.

There is also a requirement that the insurance professional be deeply involved in the actual insuring of community associations. The general bar is that the professional insure at least 25 community associations, or have the equivalent involvement in the insuring process. This ensures that your insurance professional has experience that they can rely upon when they are serving your community.

Last, but not least, there is a requirement that the insurance professional be “of satisfactory legal and ethical standing” in the industry. While CAI has a long list of requirements in the CIRMS Code of Ethics, the ones that stand out for me are: Act in the best interests of the client; refrain from making inaccurate or misleading representations or statements; do not knowingly misrepresent facts to benefit the Specialist. It is nice to know that if an insurance professional is not treating you with the respect and honesty you deserve, there can be accountability.

I am proud of the work that I put into becoming a CIRMS designee and the work I continue to put in to recertify and reconfirm my dedication to this industry. Because the community association industry is my home, and as we all know, there’s no place like home.

Kimberly Lilley, CIRMS, CMCA is the Director of Business Development for Berg Insurance Agency and can be reached at kimberly@berginsurance.com.