CIAO Advanced Designations

The Illinois Property Assessment Institute confers two advanced designations: CIAO-Intermediate and CIAO-Master. You must first obtain a CIAO before pursuing an advanced designation.

Advanced Designation Handbook

The updated Advanced Designation Handbook outlines everything needed to obtain an advanced designation, from the application through the examination process.

Apply Now

CIAO-I
Intermediate

Testing requirements for the CIAO-I designation:

5 years experience in an assessment office (township, county, or state).
Completion of 150 continuing education hours. Hours only count from IPAI, IDOR, or IAAO courses. No repeat classes.
Successfully completed Ethics for New Assessment Professionals (qualifying course) or Exploring Assessment Ethics (CE course).
Earned 25 leadership points, showing growing involvement.

CIAO-M
MASTER

Testing requirements for the CIAO-M designation:

10 years experience in an assessment office (township, county, or state).
Completion of 300 continuing education hours. Hours only count from IPAI, IDOR, or IAAO courses. No repeat classes.
Successfully completed Ethics for New Assessment Professionals (qualifying course) or Exploring Assessment Ethics (CE course).
Earned 100 leadership points, demonstrating strong leadership.
Two letters of recommendation attesting to the candidate's expertise in property assessment and strong commitment to leadership within the Illinois assessment community.
- Letters must be written from someone outside of the IPAI Education Committee.
- Letters must be written by someone in either the property assessment industry or an adjacent industry.
- Letters should preferably be from two unique perspectives demonstrating the leadership of the applicant.