Designation Spotlight: Modernizing the ARM

Risk management has come a long way in the last 60 years, from a time that can seem like the technological Dark Ages, to a new century with ever-evolving exposures that can make it challenging for risk professionals to keep up.

Since it was launched in 1966 to provide a comprehensive education that would equip risk professionals with the skills needed to keep their organizations safe or advise others on doing so, the Associate in Risk Management program has kept pace with the shifting demands of risk management. In its latest redesign, The Institutes has further modernized the ARM with new content that addresses the challenges of increasingly interconnected business risks, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics, ethical decision-making, and more.

“As risk management continues to change, whether that is from evolving risks or the growing importance of risk management within enterprises, we update our program to reflect that,” said Adam Carmichael, President of The Institutes Knowledge Group & Ethics Counsel. The latest version of the program comes after significant updates were last made in 2019, he noted.

More than 37,000 risk professionals have earned the ARM designation since its inception and those who have earned it say it has become a necessary credential for those who are charged with identifying, analyzing and managing risk.

Chris Mandel, whose long career in risk management included his time as chief risk officer of USAA Group and a term as president of the Risk & Insurance Management Society, earned the ARM in 1992 and later completed the enterprise risk version of the designation. He said the ARM at the time was the “natural and only credential to underpin the process of developing and validating my growing expertise.”

Over time, the ARM has become a credential expected of anyone seeking a top risk-related job, Mandel said. And, he added, “The ARM and ARM-E became part of my minimum expectations for the risk staff I hired.”

Kurtis Brandau, a long-time holder of the ARM who is vice president – underwriting operations at Church Mutual Insurance Co., said he earned the designation as a way to expand his insurance knowledge beyond what he gained by earning The Institute’s Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation.

“The ARM designation gave me a stronger understanding of risk management principles, which has been valuable in everything from setting risk appetite and underwriting guidelines to pricing and portfolio management,” Brandau said.

Risk management’s evolution into a high-profile discipline has made the ARM an increasingly valuable resource, Carmichael pointed out.

“Risk management has been pulled up the organizational chart. Boards want oversight and regulatory and reputational exposures have grown,” he said. “We account for that – the courses are designed to present a practical toolkit around the various steps in the risk management process, ultimately to build a risk management framework that helps with strategic decision-making.”

Earning the newly updated designation means completing three courses that generally each take four to six weeks and an ethics course that can be done in a few hours. Most participants complete the entire program in six to nine months.

The coursework begins with ARM 400: Mastering Risk Management Techniques. It aims to enable risk professionals to better communicate the value of risk management by connecting it to such key performance indicators as profitability, growth, and organizational responsibility. There also is instruction on developing effective risk management strategies through the use of insurance, retentions, pooling and other risk financing methods. Participants learn to use real-world scenarios to identify potential risks and opportunities, all while building a resilient risk culture to strengthen governance and organizational preparedness.

ARM 401: Managing Risk with Emerging Technology shows participants how to develop a technology-driven approach to identifying, analyzing and managing risk through the use of artificial intelligence, cloud-based tools and others that are reshaping modern risk management. Applying data analytics to better identify exposures, quantify losses and support risk-based decisions are covered by the course, as is the use of automation, robotics, blockchain and other technologies to strengthen loss control, improve safety and better monitor risks.

The final core program is ARM 402: Implementing Risk Management Strategies. It covers skills to assess operational, financial, cyber and other organizational risks. Participants learn how to use financial and operational risk analysis and to evaluate critical vulnerabilities as a way to strengthen strategies to address business interruption risks, cybersecurity, supply chain and workforce exposures. By the end of the course, participants should be able to recommend and develop risk management strategies to address operational, compliance, reputational and emerging risks.

Each of the core courses comes with exam prep tools that include a printable study outline, AI learning support, a mobile app, practice exam questions and a simulated exam, which is a timed test that can be taken once to mimic the actual exam.

Completion of the core courses is followed by Ethics 311: Ethical Decision Making in Risk and Insurance, a free short course that takes a few hours to complete.  It teaches skills to resolve ethical issues and guidelines to help insurance professionals make the proper call on what can sometimes be thorny workplace situations.

“The ARM has a broad audience,” Carmichael pointed out. Apart from risk managers, The Institutes sees agents, brokers, insurers and other risk professionals pursuing the designation as a way to strengthen relationships with their clients by gaining the skills to better identify and analyze risks and recommend approaches that improve resilience, he said.

Stephanie Lynn, vice-president and chief actuary at insurer Church Mutual, said that while she was familiar with some of the risk management concepts in the ARM program that were covered in her college studies and pursuit of a different designation, she was seeking a broader perspective on risk management beyond traditional actuarial topics.

“The ARM curriculum provided a practical framework for thinking about risk across the enterprise,” Lynn said, and that led her to earn the designation around nine years ago.

More information on the ARM is available online, including a free sample course and other details.