Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Burns & Wilcox Ltd. has created a Web-based portal within its corporate university--The Kaufman Institute--to deliver online education, training and development services to insurance professionals.

The Kaufman Institute offers more than 140 general business courses that range from basic business etiquette to managing profit and loss for offices, the managing general agency said.

Through a strategic alliance with Kaplan Financial Education, the institute also offers Burns & Wilcox employees access to online insurance continuing education credited courses for all states as well as electronic filing for those credits.

The goal is to open those courses to all insurance professionals, Alan Kaufman, chairman, president and CEO of Burns & Wilcox, said in a statement.

In addition, through a partnership with Walsh College, an all-business college in southeast Michigan, Burns & Wilcox is developing a five-course online insurance curriculum to prepare excess and surplus lines producers for professional certification exams.

All of those courses will be offered via “asynchronistic” distance learning, meaning students can access the course, get weekly assignments, take quizzes and get instructor feedback, but do not have to be online at the same time, Burns & Wilcox said.

The online curriculum includes INS 21, INS 22, INS 23, the courses required to earn a certificate in general insurance and ASLI 163 and ASLI 164, required courses for the Associate in Surplus Lines Insurance designation.