Continuing Education Courses for Insurance Agents

PREPARING YOU TO FULLY ASSIST YOUR POLICYHOLDERS

As an insurance professional, you're often the first contact for a policyholder who has experienced a disaster. The more you know about the disaster mitigation process and recovery, the more you can guide your client in taking the right steps to control the damage and costs.

With Continuing Education (CE) course options from ServiceMaster by Benevento, you and your staff can be better equipped to help your policyholders by understanding the latest disaster restoration techniques, procedures, and best practices.

Continuing Education (CE) Courses Designed to Help Improve Customer Service

We have developed curricula that emphasize the cost-saving benefits of quick response and expert action in a variety of critical areas. In addition to helping you understand the effects of a disaster and the steps involved in restoring the structure and the contents within it, these courses give you the knowledge needed to put your policyholders at ease.

Our Continuing Education (CE) courses are registered with the State of California and provide the credits needed for license renewal. We offer both one unit and three unit courses.

Please note: Due to COVID-19, all CE courses will be held virtually until further notice.

Browse the available insurance Continuing Education (CE) courses below.

Water-Related Courses

Water damage mitigation

Through this course, you’ll learn:

• How water can damage carpet, wood floors, and other building materials
• How much time can pass until damage occurs
• What steps can be taken to reduce or minimize the damage
• The water removal process
• The principles of drying and dehumidification
• Information regarding mold growth and the mold mitigation process
• The use of antimicrobials during water damage clean-up and restoration
• Odor control techniques

Reducing severities through restorative structural drying

This is a hands-on seminar for the latest information, equipment, procedures, and recommended certifications needed for water extraction and drying out of structures affected by water intrusion. Topics covered include:

• The effects of water saturation on various structural materials
• Evaluation of water losses
• Industry standards for drying
• Measurement and documentation
• Restoration processes
• Equipment and technology
• Modern drying paradigms
• An overview of the science of drying (psychrometry)

Water damage mitigation for manufactured homes

This course focuses on the restoration of mobile and modular homes after a water loss. It covers the differences between the two types of manufactured homes and the unique construction features that may impact decisions made during water mitigation.

Subrogation reporting on mitigation claims

This course is designed to help you control claims costs through subrogation investigation and reporting, plus teach you the value of mitigation first responders in achieving this objective.

Flood insurance

This course focuses on providing you with an increased understanding of flood insurance and the benefits for your customers. Topics covered include the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Mold-Related Courses

Mold remediation

This program introduces the science of mold and explores the potentially harmful effects of mold on building materials and occupants. Through this course, you’ll learn:

• How mold grows
• How mold spreads
• What actions should be taken to remove mold in a safe and reasonable manner
• Procedures such as containment, negative air and the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE)

Mold remediation removal and containment

Through this course, you’ll learn:

• Mold detection processes
• Mold removal and containment processes
• The source of mold and growth requirements
• Health effects associated with exposure
• Removal myths
• Proper versus improper clean-up methods
• Containment and safety best practices

Fire-Related & Smoke-Related Courses

Smoke and odor damage mitigation

Through this course, you’ll learn:

• How smoke and odor flow throughout a home
• The damages smoke can cause in certain stages, including seconds, minutes, hours, and days after a disaster
• What should be done about smoke and odor damage
• Proper smoke mitigation steps that can help reduce loss

Odor-Related Courses

Odor mitigation

Odor is often associated with pet contamination, fire, smoke, water, and mold issues. Given this, insurance professionals who are informed about odor mitigation can better support their customers during the claims process. Policyholders can benefit from the insurance professionals' expanded knowledge of odor, which in many instances can reduce costs or additional claims expenses, expedite the claims process, and provide a better customer experience by setting expectations and meeting the needs of the customer.

Packout-Related Courses

Mitigating personal property packout claims

This course demonstrates how technology is enabling restoration professionals to manage and track packout inventory, movement, and restoration progress better than ever before, giving the homeowner or business manager a sense of security throughout the process. The course covers the tools and technology of evaluating, restoring, and tracking inventory from start to finish.

Furniture-Related Courses

Reducing severities through an understanding of furniture damage and restoration

Through this course, you’ll learn the various causes and types of damage that can occur to fine furniture and wood surfaces in a property loss situation.

Legal-Related Courses

Ethics: If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it

This course is designed to provide a practical look at ethical decision-making. Instead of relying on a "gut feeling," this process takes the decision-maker through several filters, which ensure that all parties affected by the decision are considered. This is by far our most popular class and on that’s usually offered multiple times a year.

Insurance fraud

This course focuses on the history, laws, and statistics related to the fraudulent insurance crimes that take place every day in America.

Errors and omissions in the insurance industry

This course looks at E&O from multiple angles. Error & Omission lawsuits can be one of the most frightening experiences for an insurance provider. With an ever-changing litigious society, the chances of encountering these lawsuits are increasing greatly.

Biohazard-Related Courses

Trauma and biohazard losses

What can the customer expect from a quality restoration firm in dealing with trauma and biohazard losses? Understanding the unique losses that are classified as Trauma and Biohazard cleaning is the first step in understanding how to respond to the customers' needs. How these types of losses are handled greatly impact customer retention for the insurance company.

Hoarding-Related Courses

Hoarding

This course covers why hoarding is important to insurance companies, adjusters, and professionals. It is designed to help you:

• Understand hoarders
• Identify a hoarder
• Learn how to handle a loss properly when a hoarder is involved. This course also covers the impact on the claims process and claim cost as well as concerns that arise when a loss of this type is encountered.

Business-Related Courses

Surviving a disaster in your business

This is a three-hour presentation that focuses on what happens when a disaster occurs in a business and the importance of pre-loss planning. The class provides instructions and hands-on scenarios to assist insurance professionals in putting the right pieces together to create a plan. Participants will discuss and develop five key components of a plan, including:

• Assessing business threats and risk levels
• Determining what a Disaster Planning Team looks like
• The importance of insurance in the plan
• What continuity looks like for the business
• Whether the plan is effective

To inquire about the availability of any of these courses, please contact ZacharyP@smcbenevento.com.