I get this question a lot from our Ontario students. We have written a lot about CAIB information and RIBO information separately on our website but nothing that explains the differences of CAIB vs RIBO for Ontario.
WHAT IS RIBO?
RIBO stands for Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario and they are the regulatory and licensing body in Ontario. If you want to get your Ontario insurance broker’s license, you need to pass the RIBO exams.
WHAT IS CAIB?
CAIB stands for Canadian Accredited Insurance Broker. There are 4 CAIB courses and if you are looking to get your broker’s license in Ontario, you can ignore the CAIB courses. They do not help you get your license in Ontario. You should look at the CAIB courses after you get your RIBO license if you want to earn your CAIB Designation.
That said, some CAIB courses ARE used as PART OF your studies for RIBO Level 2 and 3 licenses which I’ll explain below.
GETTING YOUR ONTARIO INSURANCE BROKERS LICENSE
There are 3 levels of RIBO license in Ontario. The RIBO 1 license is mandatory and lets you start selling insurance. The RIBO 2 let’s you work independently and the RIBO 3 lets you own/manage your own brokerage and other brokers as the Principal Broker.
To get your RIBO 1 license, you need to study the RIBO 1 course and pass the RIBO 1 exam.
To get your RIBO 2 license, you need to study our RIBO 2 course bundle which contains both CAIB 2 & 3 courses. But even though you’re studying the CAIB courses, you’ll be writing the RIBO 2 exam and not the CAIB exams.
Side Note: Another way to get your RIBO 2 license is to get your CAIB Designation by passing all 4 CAIB courses. I do not recommend this because it is much more expensive and time consuming. You are better off studying CAIB 2 & 3 and taking the RIBO 2 exam.
To get your RIBO 3 license, you need to study the CAIB 4 course and pass the RIBO 3 exam.
CAIB VS RIBO
To summarize, CAIB exams are NOT used in Ontario for licensing purposes.
You can totally ignore CAIB for Ontario and focus specifically on the RIBO courses shown on our website. Once you have your RIBO 1 license, then you can consider taking CAIB-specific courses/exams to get your CAIB Designation.
Even though you might study CAIB materials in Ontario, you will be taking the RIBO exams so you should consider them RIBO exam prep material instead. For example, we sometimes refer to the CAIB 2 & 3 course bundle as the RIBO 2 course bundle.
