  |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Education Home | Back To Education Library | Print this Page | ||||||||||||||||||||
CONTINUING EDUCATION Q&A |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| This "Continuing Education Q&A" has been developed by Florida Association of Insurance Agents to help clarify some of the questions surrounding the Florida CE law. This is a general guide only and specific questions should be referred to the Department of Financial Services (DFS) formerly known as the Department of Insurance. Q #1. What is a compliance date and how is it determined? A. It's the date on which you must have all the required CE hours. For those licensed on or before 12/31/90 the compliance date is the last day of the birth month in odd numbered years. For example, you were first licensed in 1987 and your birth month is May. Your first compliance date was 5/31/93, and future compliance dates are May 31st of every odd numbered year. For those licensed after 12/31/90 the compliance date is established by determining when you received your first insurance license in Florida. Take that date and move ahead two years; then move ahead to the end of your next birth month. This is your compliance date. For example, you were first licensed on July 12, 2007 and your birthday is May 4th. From July 12th move ahead two years to July of 2009; then move ahead to the end of your next birth month, which is May 31st, 2010. Future compliance dates will be May 31st of even numbered years. Once a compliance date has been established it will not change if an additional license is obtained. For example if you've held a general lines license for 20 years and then decide to obtain a life license, your original compliance date is still used. However, your credit hours will have to be split between the two licenses with 50 percent being in P&C and 50 percent being in life or health. Q #2. What is a compliance period? A. It's the period during which you must earn your CE hours. For example, if your compliance date were May 31st, 2008 your next compliance date would be June 1st, 2008 through May 31st, 2009. Q #3. How many hours of credit do I need? A. That depends on the type license held and how long you've been licensed in Florida. This can be a bit complicated, so hang with us here. In general, agents who have less than six years experience as a licensed Florida agent need more hours than those who have over six years of experience as a Florida agent. Those with less than six years need 24 hours, while those with six or more years of Florida experience need 20 hours of credit. A change to the CE law in 1997 reduced the hours required for agents with over six years experience in Florida to 20 hours "...for compliance periods beginning on and after 1/1/98..." If you hold more than one license the six-year requirement begins on the date you obtained your first license that would require 24 hours of CE credit. For example, if you held a P&C license since 1990 but just recently obtained a life agent license you qualify for the reduced hours since you have been licensed at least six years. As another example, if you obtained a 4-40 license in 2001 and then obtained a 2-20 license in 2005 your "six year clock" won't start running until the date you got your 2-20 license in 2005. Note also that you must have been licensed for at least six years on the date your compliance period begins in order to qualify for the reduced hours. If you qualify for the reduced hours, all hours must be taken in courses approved as "intermediate" or "advanced." A "basic" level course may not be taken for credit. Those who hold only a Customer Representative (4-40) or Limited Customer Representative (4-42) license must earn 10 hours of CE regardless, of how long they have been licensed. A Customer Representative may take a course approved for basic, intermediate, or advanced. An individual holding the Personal Lines License (20-44) must meet the same requirement (24 or 20 hours) as a general lines (2-20) agent. Be cautious about knowing when the reduced hours affects you. Q #4. I have a CPCU designation. Does this affect my CE requirement? A. It depends on how long you've been licensed and when your compliance date is. There is an exception to the CE hours required for those who: 1. Hold the CPCU or CLU designation or have a college degree with 18 hours of insurance courses included, AND…. 2. Have at least 25 years of licensed experience in the same line as the designation. Experience can be from any state, not just Florida. Individuals who qualify as above are required to complete only 14 hours of credit during each compliance period. To apply for this reduction your must file form DI4-1109, which is available from the DFS. For compliance periods beginning on and after 1/1/98 the requirement is even lower, dropping from 14 hours down to 10. Again though, both conditions (designation and 25 years) must be met. If you're dually licensed you'll have to split the hours between P&C courses and life & health courses. Q #5. What's the "carryover" provision of the law? A. The law allows excess hours to be carried forward from one compliance period to the next; however credits will not be carried forward for more than one compliance period. As an example, assume you need 24 hours and your compliance date is 5/31/07, therefore your compliance period would be 6/1/05 to 5/31/07. By mid 2006 you've earned the required 24 hours to maintain your general lines license, and you see several courses totaling 12 hours which you'd like to take in August of 2006. If you take the courses all of those "excess" 12 hours earned would carry forward to your next compliance date --- 5/31/09. For hours to carry over to the next compliance period you must actually earn the hours during the compliance period. For example, suppose you earned 60 hours by taking several designation programs during your 2005-2007 compliance period. Of the 60 hours, you can use 24 hours to comply with your 2005-2007 compliance period, and you can also carry forward 24 hours for the 2007-2009 compliance period. You could comply with your 2007-2009 compliance without actually sitting in a class during that period of time. (See the ethics and wind CE questions though.) Suppose that during 2007-2009 you did sit in a 7-hour course. Some agents may think that these are "excess" hours and can be carried into the 2009-2011 period. This is not the case because there were no excess hours "earned" during the 2007-2009 period. The only hours "earned" were the 7 hours and they would count for the 2007-2009 compliance period and can't be carried to the 2009-2011 period. Q #6. What courses may I take? A. In addition to classroom classes approved by the DFS the following courses are approved for Florida CE credit. Check with the course provider for specifics: LUTCF course curriculum, CLU curriculum, Insurance Institute of America courses in General Insurance (INS 21, INS 22, INS 23), CPCU designation program, CIC courses, AAI courses, and approved correspondence courses with proctored exams. On line courses are also available for CE credit. Q #7. Are there limitations as to subject matter on courses I may take? A. Yes, you can earn credit only for those courses approved for the type license you hold. Here's a summary of the courses you may take and receive credit for:
Q #8. What's the Rules and Regulations course requirement? A. There is no longer a requirement that the two-hour Rules & Regulations course be taken. The DFS stopped enforcing the requirement for compliance periods that ended on and after September 30, 1997 Q #9. What's the situation on the two-hour unauthorized entity class that was required by a 2002 legislative change? A: While Florida statutes did create a requirement for the class, that statute was repealed in 2004. The bottom line is that there is no longer a statutory requirement that the course be taken and no licensee will ever be found to be in non-compliance for not having taken the course. Those who took the course will continue to receive credit for the class and in the event that a class is taken in the future the two hours will count towards the required hours. The Florida Department of Financial Services has indicated that future course outlines and classroom materials must address the problem of unauthorized entities, but that's a concern only for CE schools such as FAIA. There will be no requirement that licensees deal, in any way, with classes concerning unauthorized entities. As an aside, the absence of a statutory requirement for a class should not lead licensees to think that the unauthorized entity problem is a non-issue. Not understanding the problems and penalties associated with dealing with unauthorized entities could lead to loss of an insurance license, penalties, fines, and even prison time. Q #10. What are the details about the new ethics course? A. One result from the 2003 legislative session was the requirement that all individuals with an insurance license (agent, customer representative, or adjuster) must complete a course on ethics. For adjusters the course must be at least two-hours in length and for all other licensees the course must be at least three-hours in length. Such course must be taken during each two-year compliance period. The requirement applies for all compliance periods beginning July 1, 2003. Said another way, for any compliance date ending on or after June 30, 2005 you must have completed the ethics course. Q. #11. What's the CE requirement for adjusters? A. Prior to 2003 only workers' compensation adjusters were required to obtain CE credit. The 2003 legislative session added a statute – F.S. 626.869(4) – that now requires all adjusters (including public adjusters) to obtain 24 hours of CE credit every two years. Unlike the CE requirement for agents, there is no reduction to 20 hours for "long time" adjusters after six years of licensure. Of the 24 hours at least 10 must come from adjuster law courses, at least two of the 24 hours must come from an ethics course, and the remaining 12 hours may come from any subject approved for adjusters. The requirement for the two-hour "unauthorized entity" course does not apply to adjusters. The DFS will first require CE beginning with compliance periods that end in January of 2006. Like agents, the requirement is every two years and the excess hour carryover conditions are the same. Courses must be approved by the DFS for the adjuster license, and the course advertisement would indicate such. Note that an individual holding both an adjuster's license and a general lines license must complete separate CE for each license. For example, if an individual with an adjuster's license also obtaining a general lines license, the CE requirement would be for 24 hours for the adjuster's license, plus 24 more hours as a newly licensed general lines agent. The same course cannot be taken and applied to both licenses. Q #12. Can I repeat the same course for credit?A. Credit may not be earned for course if it has been taken within the past three years. Verify the course number, which must be placed on any CE class advertisement, before attending. Q #13. Can the hours from one course be split between two different licenses? A. Yes. For example, suppose you hold both a P&C and a L& H license and need 20 hours to be in compliance. Further assume you have earned 18 hours, split nine for P&C and nine for L&H. You need one more hour each for each license to be in compliance and you take a two-hour course that's approved for "generic" credit. These two hours can be split, one for each of the two licenses you hold. Q #14. How do I find out how many hours have been applied to my requirements? A. Visit the DFS web site at www.fldfs.com and look for the CE information link. On line readers can click here to be taken directly into the database. All inquiries regarding the use of the Education Database should be directed to the DFS at (850) 413-3137 x1108. Q. #15. I also hold a 1-20, Surplus Lines agent license. Are there additional CE requirements for that license too? A. Since you must hold a 2-20 to get a 1-20, you'll fulfill your CE for the 1-20 as long as you keep up the requirements on the 2-20. Q. #16. What's the change about having to take a flood CE class? A. As part of the Flood Insurance Reform Act (FIRA) of 2004, FEMA imposed a requirement that all agents who sell flood insurance must complete a one-time flood course of at least three hours. The contents of the course are spelled out in the federal legislation. (FAIA offers a four-hour course meeting these requirements.) The Florida DFS issued an information bulletin (DFS-01-2007) in January, 2007 stating that all agents who sell or may sell flood insurance must complete the course. The DFS has stated that the requirement also applies to an individual with a Customer Representative (4-40) license. The memo goes on to say that the three hours are not additional hours, only part of the basic requirement. Furthermore, the memo states only that failure to obtain the course may jeopardize the ability to sell flood insurance. In other words, no licensee will be found to be in non-compliance with the Florida CE law, although they may lose the ability to sell flood insurance if the class is not obtained. While FEMA has not yet established a "drop dead" date for this requirement, at some point they could instruct Write Your Own (WYO) flood carriers to "cut off" individuals who have not completed an approved course. The best course of action is for all licensees who sell or may sell and service flood insurance to complete the course as soon as practical. Also note, the FEMA requirement is a one-time requirement; there is currently no requirement that an approved course must be taken every year in order to continue to service or sell flood insurance. However, insurance agencies who participate in the NFIP co-operative advertising program (where some flood insurance advertising expenses are reimbursed by FEMA) must complete a FEMA approved course within 12-months of a reimbursement request. If an agency does not participate in the co-operative advertising reimbursement program, the annual requirement does not apply. Q. #17. What is the new requirement about the mitigation CE class?A. During the January 2007 legislative special session, Florida Statute 626.2815 was amended to require general lines agents and customer representatives to complete a one-hour class "...on the subject matter of premium discounts available on property insurance based on various hurricane mitigation options and the means of obtaining discounts." The requirement applies to any compliance period that ends on January 31, 2009 or later. This one hour class will count toward your total number of CE hours needed and if you take it "early" it will carry over into the next compliance period. Q.#18. What is the new requirement about a long term care CE class? A. With the advent of the new long-term care "partnership" plans, as approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), comes a new training (not CE!) requirement which effectively states that all insurance agents who sell, solicit or negotiate long-term care insurance must complete eight hours of training on long-term care and the new partnership plans on or before Dec. 31, 2007. (See DFS Informational Bulletin #DFS-10-2007, dated 8/28/07.) Once agents have completed the 8-hour course, they must complete four hours of follow-up training every two years. The education requirement applies to all health insurance agents in Florida who sell either individual or group LTC. If a licensee does not solicit or sell these policies there is no requirement to take the course. Like the flood CE class referenced above, the training requirement is NOT a CE requirement. Failure to complete the class will not result in a letter of non-compliance, but not having attended the class could jeopardize one's ability to sell LTC coverage. The OIR will require health insurance companies which sell the LTC partnership plans to bear the responsibility of confirming that their agents have completed the training requirement. After Dec. 31, companies will not accept LTC "partnership" applications if the soliciting agent has not completed the approved eight hours of training. Q. #19. Please explain the new requirement that life insurance agents must take a CE course on suitability in life insurance and annuity transactions. A. As part of Senate Bill 2082 during the 2008 legislative session, Florida Statute 626.2815(3)(k) was amended to state this: "Any person who holds a license to solicit or sell life insurance in this state must complete a minimum of 3 hours in continuing education, approved by the department, on the subject of suitability in annuity and life insurance transactions. A licensee may use the hours obtained under this paragraph to satisfy the requirement for continuing education in ethics under paragraph (a)." Note that the requirement applies to anyone who holds a license to sell life insurance or annuity contracts, not just those who actually sell or solicit the products. The DFS has advised FAIA that this new requirement will be enforced for the first time on compliance dates that end on and after January 31, 2009. Such course must be taken during each subsequent two-year compliance period; it is not a one-time requirement. Note too that the course will satisfy the three-hour ethics class required of all licensed agents and customer representatives. --------- Copyright FAIA, 9/25/08, David Thompson |
||||||||||||||||||||||
Florida Association of Insurance Agents
