This guide is designed to provide the curriculum coordinator with a basis for planning a comprehensive program in the field of marketing as well as to provide marketing and distributive education teacher/coordinators with maximum flexibility in planning an insurance marketing curriculum. The guide was constructed by identifying the competencies needed by insurance sales persons and validating them through interviews with personnel in insurance firms and associations in Illinois. Validated competencies were organized in 10 instructional clusters and an objective written for each cluster to facilitate the organization in instruction for the teacher/coordinator. The clusters are the following: advertising, communications, human relations, management, marketing/economics, mathematics, merchandising, operations, product/service technology, and selling. Each of the competency clusters contains suggested learning activities and references. Other components of this competency-based curriculum guide include an introduction to insurance, information on careers in insurance, a competency curriculum planning grid, blank sample competency worksheets, and a bibliography. (KC)