You do not have to be a member of SOFE to take examinations, however, it is less expensive to take the test if you are a member. If you plan to take more than one examination per year, it will save you money if you are a member.
Go to www.sofe.org and under the Certification link, go to Testing Registration Form. By completing the form, you will receive a username within 24 hours. Once you have a username, you may use this to register for exams from this point forward. This becomes your permanent username for the entire time that you are in the SOFE testing process. If you have forgotten your username, please call SOFE Headquarters.
Once you have a username, you may use the Current User Registration Form to sign up for the exams you would like to take. Please fill the form out once for each exam you would like to take. You may pay by credit card or send payment by mail to headquarters. There is a place on the form to indicate the method of payment.
As previously stated, you do not have to be a member of the Society to take the examinations, however, only examiners currently employed by a regulatory agency, who meet eligibility requirements and are Society members may apply for the AFE? and CFE ? designations. If you are not already a member, you are encouraged to apply for membership one quarter in advance of submitting your AFE designation application. There is a separate approval process for membership and your application must be properly approved and accepted before you can meet the membership requirement for approval of the AFE designation.
Test Format - Each examination is 50 randomly selected multiple choice questions. A limit of three hours is allowed for examination. The exams are proctored by volunteers from the SOFE membership and from the state insurance departments.
Test Months/Proctors - The examinations are given every day during the months of January, April, July and October. However, prior to registering for an examination, you must make arrangements with your proctor on an agreeable location and time/date. A list of proctors, contact information and any constraints they have placed on their availability to proctor is on the website at www.sofe.org under Certification.
Deadline To Register - You must register no later than the second Friday prior to the beginning of the test month. There will be NO exceptions to this. If you miss the deadline, you must wait until the following quarter to take the exam. If this is your first time taking a test, please register several days in advance, because it takes 24 hours to obtain your username before you can even register for an actual examination.
Grades - Upon completion of the examination, you will automatically receive your grade on the computer screen prior to signing off from the test website. In addition, a written letter will be mailed to you within two weeks advising your grade.
Retests - Retests are allowed within the test month only for individuals who have taken an unsuccessfully completed a properly applied for examination during the current test month and if application and payment is received prior to the end of the test month. In addition, you must make arrangements for a proctor prior to signing up for the retest.
Failure To Show Up For An Exam - A retest fee will be charged when an examiner fails to show up on time for a test. Examiners who do not show up on time will forfeit the test and the testing fee already paid. In addition, the next test will be charged at the retest fee. Should an emergency arise, please call Society headquarters immediately and refer to the cancellations and refund policy below.
Refunds - Refunds, minus an administrative fee of $50 for members and $75 for non-members, will be given for canceled exams, provided written notice of inability to participate is sent via certified mail to the Society headquarters to be received by the first Friday of the month in which the test is to be administered. Include the course number and the city where you are scheduled to test along with your name and address and specify to whom the check should be issued. Failure to participate without such notice will cause forfeiture of the full testing fee and a current retest fee will be charged at the future registration for the same exam. Cancellations will no longer be carried over to the next quarter. There are only two exceptions to this policy:
There are specific textbooks which must be used to study for the examinations. Below is a list of these textbooks and materials. They are:
AFE1: Life and Health Insurance; 13th Edition; Kenneth Black Jr., Harold Skipper Jr., Prentice-Hall, New Jersey; 2000
AFE2: Fundamentals of Risk and Insurance; 9th Edition, Emmett Vaughan, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 2002; Insurance Operations, Regulation & Statutory Accounting 2nd edition, Bernard Webb, Connor Harrison, James Markham, American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Pennsylvania, 2002
AFE3: Intro to Life Insurance Co. Financial Statements (Study Note); Society of Actuaries, 1997; and Life and Accident & Health Insurance Accounting (with CD Rom), 2001, Insurance Accounting and Systems Association, North Carolina, 2001
AFE4: AICPA Audit and Accounting Guide: Audits of Property and Liability Insurance Companies; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York, 2005; Property-Liability Insurance Accounting & Finance; 4th Edition, Terrie E. Troxel & George Bouchie, American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, 1995; NAIC Accounting Practices and Procedures Manuel as of March 2004
CFE1: NAIC Examiners Handbook; National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Missouri, 2005;
All examination candidates for Courses CFE1 and CFE2 must be thoroughly conversant with the NAIC Examiner’s Handbook.
CFE2: Property-Casualty Insurance Accounting; 8th Edition, 2003; Insurance Accounting and Systems Association, North Carolina
All examination candidates for Courses CFE1 and CFE2 must be thoroughly conversant with the NAIC Examiner’s Handbook.
CFE3: Reinsurance; Edited by Robert W. Strain; Strain Publishing Company, New York, 1997, Reinsurance Practices;
Textbooks for the exams may be purchased from the Actuarial Bookstore (a mail-order bookstore), Amazon.com? or Booksamillion.com? (Internet-based bookstores).
Orders can be mailed, faxed or phones in. The actuarial Bookstore ships via UPS within two to three days. Or you can order on line using the link from SOFE’s website or at (http://www.actuarialbookstore.com/).
Amazon.com? (http://www.amazon.com) and Booksamillion.com? (http://www.booksamillion.com) take approximately three to six weeks for delivery. Not all books are available.
In addition, state insurance libraries and public libraries may lend these books.
Please note: Older versions of some of the required textbooks are still available. It is suggested that you purchase these older editions until they are no longer available. The bibliography on the next page includes all of the versions currently being used by SOFE. The star indicates that an updated version is available. For information on updated versions, please refer to the Actuarial Bookstore’s order form. They may also have access to some of the older books.
In addition to the textbooks, the Society provides study guides as an aid for study. These guides are available on the website at www.sofe.org under the Certification link. The study guides are updated frequently. And please keep in mind that these are just tools to help you prepare; they are not all inclusive of the material upon which you will be tested.