International
Risk Management Institute, Inc., now known as IRMI, was founded in 1978
primarily to educate risk managers, insurance agents/brokers, underwriters, and
other insurance professionals by conducting seminars. In conjunction with these
programs, risk and insurance publications were developed to provide what we
felt was much-needed information in an evolving industry. So popular were these
publications that, by the mid-1980s, publishing had become our primary
focus.
At that time, we formulated a strategic plan to develop a practical and
detailed reference library covering all facets of property and casualty
insurance and risk management. Originally, these were printed and housed in
three-ring binders for which we provided quarterly supplements. The loose-leaf
supplements were shrink-wrapped and shipped to subscribers, who then inserted
the new and replacement pages into their binders.
Today, IRMI publishes the most comprehensive (and, we think,
practical) risk
and insurance library of any publisher. No longer in print form, the IRMI
KnowledgeBase has expanded to more than 75,000 pages and is available online
through our own platform, IRMI Online, and as part of Vertafore’s
ReferenceConnect service (formerly SilverPlume). Our subscriber family
encompasses thousands of risk, insurance, and legal professionals serving all
industries across the globe.
IRMI also publishes an extensive library of free articles, white papers, a
glossary, and other content on IRMI.com, one of the most visited websites for
risk professionals. With more than 6 million visitors each year (and that
number is growing steadily), IRMI.com has broad appeal, providing content on a
wide range of topics. IRMI also offers a number of free e-mail
newsletters that serve as companions to both our free content and our
subscription-based reference services. The flagship e-mail newsletter,
IRMI Update, has one of the largest circulations in the property and
casualty insurance arena with more than 53,000 subscribers.
IRMI
scaled back its seminars in the late 1980s as we focused on hosting national
and regional risk
management and insurance conferences. The IRMI
Construction Risk Conference was our first such program and has become the
premier event for people who manage or insure construction risks. IRMI now also
hosts the annual Energy
Risk & Insurance Conference as well as the Emmett
J Vaughan Agribusiness Conference.
In 2000, IRMI partnered with a start-up Internet company, agreeing to write
insurance continuing education courses that would be sold and consumed on a
delivery platform the company created. That company, WebCE, subsequently became the largest provider of
online CE courses for the financial services industry, and IRMI acquired WebCE
in 2011. Today, IRMI and WebCE work together to maintain a dominant market
position in financial services continuing education by providing top-notch
courses at very reasonable prices and backing it all up with superior
technology and customer service.
In 2005, we identified a need for industry-specific
risk and insurance continuing education that could be offered on a larger
scale and more economically than is possible with live conferences. As a start
to filling that need, we introduced the Construction Risk and Insurance
Specialist (CRIS®) certification program, an online course of study
served on the WebCE platform. Subsequently, we created the Management Liability
Insurance Specialist (MLIS®) program, the Energy Risk Insurance
Specialist (ERISTM) program, the Transportation Risk and Insurance
Professional (TRIP™) program, and acquired the Agribusiness and Farm Insurance
Specialist (AFIS®) program.
The IRMI founders selected an owl as a logo to convey the wisdom that IRMI
provides to its customers. (In most of the western world, an owl is a symbol of
wisdom, which stems from an English language nursery rhyme "A Wise Old
Owl.")
Throughout the years, our primary goal has always been to help people do a
better job of managing risk by giving them the reliable and practical knowledge
and wisdom they need to improve the way they do business. While IRMI has
enjoyed many successes, what makes us proudest is our expanding family of
subscribers and learning how we have helped them achieve their business or risk
management goals over the years.
If our content, courses, certifications, or conferences have been helpful to
you, we'd love to hear about it. See
what our customers have to say, and please send
us your IRMI comments.
Many thanks for your confidence and support over the years!