Senior Suitability

The Florida Legislature took action during their 2008 legislative session to strengthen regulation of annuity sales to seniors.  SB 2082 created a new continuing education requirement for all resident life insurance agents going into effect on January 1, 2009.

Accordingly, the new regulation requires any person who holds a license to solicit or sell life insurance in the State of Florida to complete a minimum of 3 hours in continuing education approved by the Florida Department of Insurance in the subject of suitability in annuity and life insurance transactions.

If an agent’s continuing education compliance period ends January 31, 2009, or after, they must meet the new requirement by the end of their compliance period.

Florida State Requirements

Updated: 04/03/2009  

Continuing Education Hours

• For LH, PC & Title agents - 24 hours biennially in basic or higher level courses, including 3 hours in ethics.
• LH, GL (PC), and PL licensed 6 years or more must complete 20 hours of intermediate or advanced level courses, biennially.
• Adjusters must complete 24 hours biennially (2 hours Ethics, 10 hours Law, 12 hours Optional).
• Customer representatives, limited customer representatives, administrative agents, solicitors, title agents or industrial fire and burglary agents who are not dually licensed as LH agents must complete 12 hours biennially.
• Agents licensed for 25 years or more, who are also CLUs or CPCUs or who have B.S. degrees in risk management or insurance with 18 or more semester hours in upper-level insurance-related courses, must complete 12 hours biennially.
• Workers compensation adjusters are required to complete 24 hours biennially including 2 hour in ethics, 10 hours workers compensation law and policy, and 12 hours in any workers compensation subjects.

Course Subject Requirements

• Courses must be approved for lines of insurance for which agent is licensed.
• LH agents who also have an industrial fire and burglary license must have 24 hours in LH and 4 hours in industrial fire.
• LH/GL (PC) combined licensees must complete 50% of hours in LH and 50% in PC.
• LH/GL (PC) agent hours must include 3 hours Ethics.
• All Florida licensed insurance agents who currently sell or may sell flood insurance through the NFIP must complete a one-time 3 hour training course about the NFIP. (These 3 hours are not required in addition to the normal number of credit hours required for each agent.)

End of birth month following the second anniversary of the first license issuance date, and then biennially thereafter.

End of birth month following the second anniversary of the first license issuance date, and then biennially thereafter.

Independent self study courses or classroom courses.

Up to 24 excess hours may be carried over to the next reporting period.

Courses may not be taken for credit more than once in a 3 year period.

Exams do not have to be monitored, however the person taking the exam must sign an affidavit swearing that they completed the exam without any assistance, and the affidavit must be signed in the presence of a disinterested third party who also signs the affidavit. The form must then be faxed in to the CE provider. 

Exemptions

• Individuals with a limited lines license that an exam is not required.
• Individuals with any of the following limited licenses: dental representative, motor vehicle physical damage and mechanical breakdown agent and crop hail and multiple peril crop agent
• Individuals who are officials or employees of a government entity and whose job description requires them to say current on insurance issues. Request for approval from the Florida Department of Financial Services is required.

Your certificate of completion will be e-mailed to you after your exam is completed. The course provider reports credits earned to the Florida Department of Financial Services within one business day of course completion. The agent keeps the original certificates of completion in his or her files. Students may submit transcripts for college level courses.

Nonresident agents and adjusters are not required to complete FL approved courses. To be compliant with the FL requirement, a nonresident agent must meet their resident state CE and a nonresident adjuster may meet their resident or any state CE requirement where and adjuster license is held.

For Additional Information Please Contact

Florida Department of Financial Services
Bureau of Agent and Agent Licensing

Room 419 Larson Building
200 E. Gaines St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0319

Phone: (850)413-3134

Fax: (850)488-8253

State Website: http://www.fldfs.com/

To Check the Status of Your CE Credits
*You will need to provide your FL Education Database Login name and password or your SSN and Date of Birth*

1. Go to http://www.fldfs.com
2. Click the yellow "Agent Education Database" button under the heading, "For Agents".
3. If you have your FL Education Database Login information, input it in the requested fields.
4. 4. If you do not have the Login name and password, click, "Forgot your Password?".
5. Enter your SSN (NO DASHES) and your Date of Birth.
6. Click "Submit".
7. Click the "Compliance" button at the top of your page, then click, "Compliance Evaluation".
8. You can also view a full list of completed courses by clicking, "Transcripts".

Affidavit Instructions 

Instructions for all Florida agents completing a CE course. IMPORTANT!!!

Your state does not require that your exam(s) be monitored.

However:

An AFFIDAVIT for the course must be filled out and faxed to us at (619) 421-8171. This affidavit can be obtained by clicking on the link below. The agent taking the course must sign on the form in the space provided, stating that he/she is the one who took the exam with no outside help from any source.

Another signature is also required by a witness. This witness guarantees that the student signing the form is that student (preventing any persons other than the student from signing the form for them).  If the student works as an employee of an office/agency, the manager/owner of the agency must sign the form as the witness. If the student is self-employed, a sole proprietor, or a partner, then the affidavit may be signed by a disinterested third party. No family members or persons working under the authority of the student can sign the form.

Click here for your state's affidavit.

How to Redeem Vouchers 

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.