Professional standards board
Honorary fellowship
At the CII's AGM on 25 September 2002 the members of the CII decided to re-introduce the category of Honorary Fellowship. In taking this decision it was recognised that whilst the facility for Honorary Fellowship had been withdrawn in 1994, the industry had changed substantially over the intervening years with a considerable contraction in the number of major players and increasing globalisation. Opinions formers are now often coming from outside the Industry and from overseas. It is vital to engage such people with the CII and to also recognise the rise of specialist business schools/colleges/universities and also increasing Regulatory/Government interest in Insurance and Financial services. In encouraging leading men and women in these fields to play a part in the CII's affairs, it is unrealistic to expect them to take the CII's exams, especially as in almost all cases they would already be extremely well qualified in other spheres of activity i.e. economics; law, accountancy etc.
The Working Party felt that the membership as a whole would be supportive of the introduction of Honorary Fellowship. This is not to say that Honorary Fellowship is granted lightly. Appointments are only made against very strict criteria and candidates are expected to make a prominent contribution to the CII and to be fully bound by the Institute's normal rules and regulations. Such Honorary Fellows are only allowed to refer to themselves as an Honorary Fellow and have to prefix any designation with the word Hon. e.g. Hon FCII. They are not allowed to use a Chartered Title.
The criteria for Honorary Fellowship includes various combinations of:
- Possession of suitable academic/professional qualifications;
- Possession of exceptional experience in insurance/finance services;
- Possession of a pre-eminent stature;
- Possession of undoubted professionalism.
In order to ensure that appointments are made in a transparent and robust manner Nominations and Renumeration Committee, Honary Fellowship Assessment Board takes such decisions on appointing Honorary Fellows on behalf of Council so that objectivity and independence can be both applied and be seen to be applied. Annual Nominations either arise centrally or from Presidents of Local Institutes. However candidates should be nominated on the basis of what they can bring to the Institute in the future. Honorary Fellowship is not be used to recognise past service - the CII awards system remains the appropriate mechanism for this.
