- How the CRIS Curriculum Is Actually Organized
- Course Final Format and Registration Mechanics
- Commercial Liability Insurance for Contractors
- Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction
- Property Insurance for Contractors
- Workers Compensation for Contractors
- Commercial Auto, Surety, CIPs, and Miscellaneous Lines
- Choosing Your Course Order
- Who Benefits From Each Content Area
- Keeping the Designation Current
- Frequently Asked Questions
- CRIS has five core courses, each with its own separate final exam, not one combined five-domain test.
- Each designation-only final has 50 randomized multiple-choice questions and requires 70% to pass.
- All five courses must be completed within 60 months of starting, and you may take them in any order.
- Online pricing is $169 per course or $845 for all five; state insurance CE credit adds $19 per course.
How the CRIS Curriculum Is Actually Organized
Most people searching for "CRIS exam domains" expect a single blueprint with percentage weights, the way many licensing exams publish. The Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist designation, offered through the International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), does not work that way. The five "domains" are the titles of five core courses, and each course ends with its own final examination. IRMI does not publish weights for them, and nothing in the program materials establishes an official exam-domain count in the blueprint sense.
That distinction changes how you prepare. You are not studying for one large exam where a weak area can be offset by a strong one. You are clearing five separate gates, each worth passing on its own. If you are still orienting yourself to the credential, start with What Is CRIS Certification? and the broader overview at What Is CRIS?, then return here for the content-area detail.
| Course (Domain) | Primary Subject Area |
|---|---|
| Commercial Auto, Surety, CIPs, and Miscellaneous Lines | Auto exposures, bonds, wrap-up programs, and specialty coverages |
| Commercial Liability Insurance for Contractors | CGL and related liability coverage as it applies to contractors |
| Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction | Contract language, indemnity, additional insured status, and insurance requirements |
| Property Insurance for Contractors | Builders risk, equipment, and other property exposures on contractor operations |
| Workers Compensation for Contractors | Workers compensation coverage and exposures specific to contractors |
Because IRMI's course titles are the only official structure, the topic lists in this guide describe what each title logically covers in construction insurance practice. They are meant to orient your preparation, not to substitute for the course text, which is the authoritative source for what any given final tests.
Course Final Format and Registration Mechanics
The mechanics are the same across all five courses, which makes planning simpler than it first appears. IRMI's Learning Center is hosted through WebCE, which validates completed tests and issues course certificates.
- Question count: For the designation-only route, each course final has 50 randomized multiple-choice questions.
- Passing mark: 70% on each final.
- Retakes: Unlimited on the designation-only route.
- Completion window: All five courses and finals within 60 months of starting the program.
- Order: Any order you like.
- Prerequisite knowledge: The curriculum assumes basic insurance terminology and fundamentals. Degrees and other designations do not waive any core course.
Cost is straightforward: $169 per course, or $845 for all five online. Our CRIS certification cost breakdown walks through the bundle math and the CE add-on. For the passing threshold itself, see CRIS Passing Score, and for eligibility questions see CRIS Requirements.
Commercial Liability Insurance for Contractors
This is the course most candidates meet first, and it is a common starting point in instructor-led delivery as well. Liability is the backbone of contractor risk because nearly every contract, bid, and certificate request touches it.
Commercial Liability Insurance for Contractors
Expect the course to center on how general liability coverage responds to contractor operations, and where the coverage form leaves gaps.
- How the commercial general liability form is structured: insuring agreement, exclusions, conditions, and definitions
- Occurrence-based triggers and how they interact with long-tail construction defect claims
- Products-completed operations exposure, which persists long after a project closes
- Common contractor-relevant exclusions and endorsements, and how they narrow or restore coverage
- How umbrella and excess layers sit above primary liability
The question style in this area tends toward application: given a described loss or policy provision, which coverage response is correct? Memorizing definitions without practicing scenarios is the most common way candidates stumble. Because every contractor liability concept feeds into risk transfer, mastering this course first makes the next one noticeably easier.
Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction
If liability coverage is the engine, contractual risk transfer is the steering. This course addresses how construction contracts push risk down the chain to subcontractors and how insurance backs those promises up.
Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction
Candidates need to read contract language the way an underwriter or risk manager would.
- Indemnity and hold-harmless provisions, including the broad, intermediate, and limited forms, and anti-indemnity statute considerations
- Additional insured requirements and how endorsements deliver (or fail to deliver) that status
- Insurance specification clauses: limits, coverage forms, duration of completed operations coverage, and waiver of subrogation
- Certificates of insurance and their limitations as evidence of coverage
- Subcontractor prequalification and the role of insurance in vendor management
Property Insurance for Contractors
Contractors carry property exposure that looks different from a typical commercial building owner. Materials sit on site, equipment moves between jobs, and the project being built is itself an insurable interest with multiple parties.
Property Insurance for Contractors
Focus on the property coverages that follow a contractor's work and assets rather than a fixed premises.
- Builders risk coverage: who purchases it, who is insured, what is covered during construction, and when coverage ends
- Contractors equipment and tools, including mobile equipment and rented or leased items
- Installation and materials in transit or at temporary storage locations
- Valuation methods, coinsurance concepts, and how deductibles and sublimits apply
- Common causes-of-loss limitations that matter on active job sites
Think of this course as the one that rewards practical imagination. Walk through a project from foundation to turnover and ask what property is exposed at each stage and whose policy responds.
Workers Compensation for Contractors
Construction is a high-hazard class for employee injuries, which makes workers compensation both a major cost driver and a major technical subject for contractor insurance professionals.
Workers Compensation for Contractors
Expect emphasis on how the system applies to construction employment arrangements and cost mechanics.
- Coverage structure: statutory benefits under Part One and employers liability under Part Two
- Classification of construction operations and why misclassification matters for premium
- Experience rating and how loss history affects cost over time
- Subcontractor exposure, including uninsured subcontractor treatment and independent contractor questions
- Alternative approaches to controlling cost, such as safety programs and claims management
Terminology precision matters here. Distinguish between the statutory and employers liability components, and be ready for questions on how premium bases and classifications drive what a contractor ultimately pays.
Commercial Auto, Surety, CIPs, and Miscellaneous Lines
The broadest-sounding title is also the one most likely to feel like several short courses stitched together. It covers lines that do not fit neatly into the other four.
Commercial Auto, Surety, CIPs, and Miscellaneous Lines
Breadth is the challenge. Build a clean mental map of each line and what exposure it answers.
- Commercial auto: covered auto symbols, liability and physical damage, and contractor-specific vehicle exposures
- Surety: bid, performance, and payment bonds, and how a bond differs from insurance
- Controlled insurance programs (CIPs), including owner-controlled and contractor-controlled wrap-ups, and what they typically include and exclude
- Additional specialty and miscellaneous coverages relevant to construction operations
The surety portion trips up insurance professionals who assume a bond works like a policy. The principal, obligee, and surety relationship, and the surety's right of indemnity from the principal, are conceptually different from an insurer paying a covered claim. Controlled insurance programs are another place where precision pays off, since wrap-ups change who buys coverage and which policies respond.
Choosing Your Course Order
Because the courses can be taken in any order, sequence is a strategic choice. A sensible approach is to build from foundational liability concepts toward the courses that depend on them, then finish with the breadth course.
Commercial Liability Insurance for Contractors
- Establish the coverage-form vocabulary that later courses assume
- Practice scenario-style questions on exclusions and endorsements
Contractual Risk Transfer in Construction
- Apply liability concepts to contract language and additional insured status
- Build a side-by-side note on contract demand, certificate, and endorsement
Property Insurance for Contractors and Workers Compensation for Contractors
- Pair these two since each is self-contained and technical
- Use project-lifecycle walkthroughs for property; classification drills for workers compensation
Commercial Auto, Surety, CIPs, and Miscellaneous Lines
- Close with the broadest course once you have the other coverage vocabulary locked in
- Make a one-page map comparing surety to insurance
IRMI's six-to-ten-hour estimate per course is a useful planning anchor, but treat it as a floor for unfamiliar material. If you work in the field daily, a course may move faster; if a topic is new, budget extra time. For a full preparation plan, see the CRIS study guide, and for a condensed refresher the CRIS cheat sheet is useful once you have worked through the course material. Use the practice test site to check how well scenario questions stick before you sit each final.
Who Benefits From Each Content Area
The designation is aimed at people who place, service, underwrite, or manage insurance for construction operations. Different roles lean on different courses day to day, but the designation requires all five regardless.
- Agents and brokers serving contractors: Liability and risk transfer courses map directly to certificate requests, contract reviews, and coverage proposals.
- Underwriters and claims professionals: Property, workers compensation, and liability courses sharpen the technical judgment behind quoting and adjusting.
- Contractor risk managers and owners: Risk transfer, CIPs, and surety content support vendor management, bid strategy, and program design.
- Newer insurance staff moving into construction: The program assumes basic insurance fundamentals, so it works best as a specialization step rather than an entry point.
If you are weighing whether the investment fits your career, the analyses in Is the CRIS Certification Worth It? and CRIS Jobs cover the employer-side picture, and CRIS Salary Guide addresses compensation qualitatively.
Keeping the Designation Current
Earning the designation is not the end of the obligation. Renewal is annual and requires six approved continuing-education hours in each 12-month period. Surplus hours do not roll forward, so completing extra credit in one year does not reduce the requirement in the next. Plan CE as a recurring habit rather than a one-time catch-up.
Key Takeaway
Treat the five courses as five independent finals. Pass each at 70% or better, track your 60-month window from the day you start, and remember that unlimited retakes apply on the designation-only route, which lowers the cost of a first-attempt miss but not the importance of scheduling.
For timing questions about when you can sit finals and how the window works, see CRIS Exam Dates, and for how demanding the finals are in practice, How Hard Is the CRIS Exam? is a useful companion.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The five domains are the titles of IRMI's five core courses, each with its own separate final. They are unweighted curriculum headings, not parts of one combined examination.
On the designation-only route, each final has 50 randomized multiple-choice questions and requires 70% to pass. If you select state insurance CE credit, finals contain no more than 50 questions and retake rules may be limited.
No. The courses may be taken in any order, as long as all five and their finals are completed within 60 months of starting the program.
The online core program is $169 per course or $845 for all five. Optional state insurance CE credit adds $19 per course. See the cost breakdown article for details.
No. Prior degrees and other designations do not waive core courses. The curriculum does assume you already know basic insurance terminology and fundamentals.