Last Minute Insurance CE Could be a Problem in 2010
It happens every year, as the clock ticks closer to the deadline, agents find themselves in a state of panic as they hastily flip through study material in the hopes they’ll be able to pass the exam and complete their state mandated insurance continuing education requirement on time. While the expansion of the internet and the adoption of online education have made these requirements easier to complete, they have also gone so far as to increase the level of procrastination to mere days or hours before classes must be completed. Inevitably disaster strikes as logins fail, websites slow down, pop-up blockers cause glitches, exams don’t load properly, printers are out of ink, the list goes on and on. Many continuing education providers offer rush processing of your CE credits hoping to bank on your tardiness, but that usually comes with a significant price tag. If you find that most times you are one of these people then this year we encourage you to get your training done early! In addition to the fact that getting your CE done ahead of time will save you both stress and money, several states have now adopted new rules which will severely impact your ability to wait until the last minute.
Several states have recently adopted new regulations which change the amount of time you might expect to spend on your CE. The adoption of NAIC guidelines by more and more states has impacted Continuing Education Providers by placing strict limitations on quantity of material per approved hour of credit. The application of the NAIC word count formula to continuing education content has made a significant impact on the insurance CE hours courses are being approved for. Providers are finding that courses that were worth 15 hours of insurance CE in 2007 may now be worth only 3. As a result students are finding also that there is a greater quantity of course material and exam questions to get through before they can satisfactorily complete their requirement.
A greater impact has been seen in states such as Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Virginia which have adopted a mandatory course review process before access to the exam may be allowed. Virginia has gone so far as to require that course material must be viewed for the approved amount of insurance CE hours, prior to an agent being allowed to take an exam. In these states and possibly in more to come, the days of self-paced course review have come to an end. As of 2010, agents should expect to go through course material from start to finish before being allowed to complete the testing and receive their insurance CE credit.
Check with your state insurance regulator to determine what kind of changes will be impacting your requirements this year.
