2023 California Continuing Education for Insurance Agents Requirements
Renewing Your License in 2023
Suppose your California Insurance License is renewed in 2023. In that case, you will need to make sure you have 24 hours of CE classes for insurance on record with the State. Sounds easy, right? Many agents still need to correct their choices. Other agents do not attend enough classes. If this happens to you, your license will be suspended. And a suspended license means no paycheck for you!
Let’s go over some of the special rules and a new fee charged by the State this year.
License Type Requirements
All casualty, life, health, and personal lines agents must continue education. But, if you have more than one license, you may only need 24 hours of CE. You can choose courses to meet one or both of those licenses.
Bill has both casualty and life licenses. He can take 24 hours of casualty courses to meet his educational needs. Or, he can take 24 hours of life courses. Finally, he can take a combination of BOTH life and casualty licenses . . . 12 hours of life and 12 hours of casualty.
California is one of the few states that allow you to do this.
Ethics Requirements
No matter your license type, you need at least three hours of ethics every two years. Many agents miss this one, then find out their license is suspended. Agents also waste time by taking too many hours. That’s right! It’s a prevalent mistake. How does this happen? Well, you know you need 24 hours of CE. But did you know that the 24-hour requirement INCLUDES the three hours of ethics? In other words, as many agents believe, you do not need to take 24 hours of education PLUS another 3 hours of ethics.
Here is another misconception by agents. They take several ethics courses to meet the needs of several license renewals. Wrong. The State says you MUST complete a current or fresh ethics course in your current license period.
Example: Juan wants to get his ethics done for the next eight years. He took ethics totaling 12 hours in 2023. He thought they would meet his ethics requirements for four renewal periods. Twelve hours is divided by three required hours per license period. Wrong. The State mandates that a new ethics course is taken EACH RENEWAL PERIOD. Why? Because they want ethical practices to be on your mind regularly. Even though Juan gets credit for 12 hours of CE, he will still need to take a new ethics course each license period.
Call us to get questions like these answered before you buy. Be sure your license is not suspended. Why take and pay for more CE than you need?
Excess / Carry-Forward Hours
What happens if you take more Continuing Education for Insurance Agents than needed? First of all, you don’t lose them. Excess hours you take in one renewal period carry forward to the next renewal period. But you cannot take more than 24 extra hours. If you do, you could risk losing some of those excess hours.
Example: Sally needs 24 hours of CE for her 2023 license renewal in December. She has some extra time on her hands during her vacation. Sally decides to finish her 24 hours for her current license renewal. PLUS, she did another 34 hours for her next renewal. Since she can only carry forward 24 excess hours, Salley risks losing 10 of the extra 34 hours she took.
Duplicate and Special Courses
Many agents don’t know it, but repeating a course you took last time is okay. But, you must be sure you are taking it in your new and different renewal period. Questions? Call us at (800) 498-5100
Suppose you sell homeowners insurance, flood insurance, annuities, or long-term care. In that case, there are special training courses you must take. You may need to re-take them every two years to get commissions. Sometimes they are necessary to talk to customers about these products. Feel free to call us with any of your questions.
New Fees
The Department of Insurance requires all continuing ed schools to pay a special new fee. It is 67 cents per credit hour. When submitting your California Insurance CE courses to the State, you pay this fee. This DOI processing fee pays for a private company (Sircon) to document your hours. They post the info on their website and handle your license renewal. Of course, the cost of license renewals is a separate matter and a different fee . . . about $190 per license this year.
