Course List

California State Requirements

Updated: 12/03/2009

IMPORTANT: California will not be mailing out renewals or notifications, please read this official notice from the state!
(Click Here)

Continuing Education Hours

• Life agent or fire and casualty broker-agent: 25 hours annually for first four years following original license issuance date, then 24 hours biennially thereafter.
• Personal lines broker-agent: 10 hours annually.

• Courses must be approved for lines of insurance for which license is held.
• Ethics Requirement: Life, Fire and Casualty agents are required to complete 4 hours of approved Ethics hours. Personal Lines agents are required to complete 2 hours of approved Ethics hours. The Ethics hours are to be included in the total number of hours required. Agents and brokers not completing the Ethics CE prior to the expiration date of their license will NOT be allowed to renew their license until this requirement has been met.
• Annuity Requirement: All California agents who sell annuities must complete an 8 hour state-approved Annuity Training course prior to selling annuities. In addition to the one-time 8-hour Annuity Training course, agents continuing to sell annuities must complete a 4-hour state-approved Annuity CE course each subsequent compliance period.
• Long-Term Care: Individuals who sell long-term care products in California must complete 8-hours of California LTC annually for the first four years, then eight hours biennially thereafter.
• California Partnership Long-Term Care: Individuals who sell California Partnership for Long-Term Care products must obtain eights hours of specific partnership LTC and eight hours of California-approved LTC credits before soliciting. Thereafter, eight hours in each type of LTC CE courses must be completed biennially. However, a new licensee must complete eight hours of California-approved LTC annually for the first four years of licensure, and eight hours in partnership LTC biennially. These courses apply toward the completion of the basic CE requirement.
• 24 Hour Coverage Requirement: Life agents who wish to sell the combined Group Health and Workers Compensation plan known as "24 Hour Coverage" must complete a specific, California-approved, four-hour course before solicitation. This course will only need to be taken once, and the credits can be used to meet the basic CE requirement.

Continuing Education Compliance Date

All continuing education credits must be achieved by the date of the license renewal.

The license renewal date is the last day of the license issuance month, biennially. Personal lines renewal is 12/31 biennially.

Types of Courses Accepted for CE Credit

Independent self-study courses (except for partnership LTC credits & bail agent CE) and classroom study.

Final Exam

Self-study final exams are not required to be monitored, except for courses approved specifically to meet the "24 hour Coverage" requirement, which must be monitored by a disinterested third party (i.e., someone with no financial dependency on the student).

Carryover Requirements

Life agents and Fire and Casualty broker-agents licensed four years or more, a maximum of 30 hours earned only in the second half of a biennial reporting period may be carried over to the next reporting period.

Course Repetition

Courses (including California-specific LTC courses) may not be taken for credit more than once in each biennial reporting period.

Exemptions

• Cargo Shipper's Agents.
• Agents who are 70 years or older and have held a California insurance license in good standing for 30 years or more. These agents must still meet the long-term care and CA Partnership long-term care requirement if they choose to solicit long-term care products.

Method To Certify Completion

You will be able to print your certificate of completion online once you have completed your exam. The course provider reports credits earned to the insurance department within one business day of course completion. The licensee keeps the original certificates of completion in his or her files for 5 years.

Nonresidents

• Exempt if licensee meets home state CE requirement with the exception on nonresidents selling annuities. CA annuities requirement must be completed. Resident state compliance will be verified on the PDB.
• Nonresidents are NOT exempt from LTC and California Partnership LTC education requirements if they choose to sell those products.

For Additional Information Please Contact

California Insurance Department
License Bureau

320 Capitol Mall
Sacramento, CA 95814-4309

Phone: (800) 967-9331

State Website: www.insurance.ca.gov

Renew Your License Online

• Go to www.insurance.ca.gov/
• Click on “Quick Links” and select “Producer Licensing Online Services”
• Select “Free Application Online Renewal Service” and begin entering on your information
• If you are renewing late and within one year of the expiration date of your license go to http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0200-industry/0020-apply-license/0200-indiv-non-resident/late-renewals.cfm

To Check the Status of Your CE Credits

*You will need to provide your name -OR- a CA insurance license number.*

1. Go to http://www.insurance.ca.gov
2. Click, "Check License Status"
3. Select whether you want to search by license number or by name.
4.  If searching by license number, be aware that the leading character is the number zero, not the letter "O".
5. If searching by name, the format is "last first middle". Please note that putting commas into this field will result in an error.
6. Scroll to the bottom of the page once you have selected your file and click the "Continuing Education" button.

Optional PACE or CFP Credit

Many of our Insurance CE courses are also approved for CE credit for agents who hold professional designations such as CLU, ChFC, CFP. The type of CE credit and number of hours approved are listed above in the course description.

Course Format

If your state requires monitored exams, you must have your monitor sign-in and follow the monitor instructions BEFORE you begin the exam.  See the State Information tab, Monitor tab and Help Center for more information.

Monitor Instructions - General

 IMPORTANT!!!

Your state requires that your exam(s) MUST be monitored.

The monitor must print, sign and complete the affidavit found by clicking Printable Monitor Form to indicate that the exam was taken without any outside help from any source. Please fax the completed monitor form to: (619) 421-8171 immediately after completing the exam. Your exam will not be completed, and no CE credit will be awarded or reported to your state, until the properly completed, signed monitor form has been received (along with any state reporting fees that may be due).