MilesToPass

Maintaining a license: continuing education, recordkeeping, and disciplinary actions

Lesson 72 of 92 · All lessons · Up next: Agent responsibilities: fiduciary capacity, compensation, and ethics →

Keeping a license is an ongoing job

Passing the exam and getting appointed is only the start. A Florida license stays useful only while the licensee keeps up three obligations: continuing education (CE), accurate records, and conduct that does not give the Department of Financial Services (the department) grounds for discipline. Falling short on any of them can cost the licensee the right to transact business.

Continuing education: the 2-year cycle

Florida's CE law applies to individuals licensed to sell insurance or adjust claims in any line for which an examination is required for licensing. It does not apply to a license for a line that needs no exam, or to a limited license as a crop or hail and multiple-peril crop insurance agent.

Every 2 years, a licensee must complete:

  • A 4-hour update course specific to the license held. It covers insurance law updates, ethics, disciplinary trends and case studies, industry trends, premium discounts, and suitability of products and services. Someone holding several licenses must take an update course specific to at least one of them. Title insurance agents are the one group excused from the update course.
  • Elective hours -- generally 20 hours, for a total of 24 hours per cycle.
  • If licensed for 6 or more years, the elective requirement drops to 16 hours, for a total of 20.
A timeline labeled Florida continuing education, every two-year cycle, runs from the start of the cycle to two years. Along it are two blocks joined by a plus sign. The first block is the four-hour update course, specific to the license held, with title agents exempt. The second block is elective hours: twenty hours, for twenty-four in total, or sixteen hours, for twenty in total, once licensed six years or more. An arrow at the end of the timeline points to a red warning box: if continuing education is not certified, the appointment may be terminated or not renewed unless an extension or waiver was granted. Below, a panel titled who is covered says the rules apply to lines that require an exam, not to no-exam lines or limited crop and hail licenses, and that licensees on active military duty may request a waiver. A second panel titled discipline says the department may deny, suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew, with grounds in sections 626.611 and 626.621, and reminds licensees to keep required records and file reports on time.
Florida CE: a 4-hour update course plus elective hours every 2 years

Elective credit can come from any department-approved CE course, and certain professional designation programs also count -- for example, any part of the CLU curriculum or the CPCU program earns 24 hours, and a department-approved insurance course at an accredited college or university earns 12 hours per credit hour. CE course providers, instructors, school officials, and monitor groups must all be approved by the department before offering courses.

Special cases. A licensee who cannot comply because of active military duty may ask the department in writing for a waiver. A nonresident may satisfy Florida's CE by meeting home-state CE if the home state reciprocates with Florida; a nonresident with no reciprocal CE arrangement must meet Florida's requirement.

The consequence. If the department notifies an agent or adjuster that CE has not been certified, it may immediately terminate or refuse to renew the appointment, unless an extension or waiver was granted. It will not issue a new appointment of the same or similar type until the missing CE is completed.

Recordkeeping

Agents are expected to keep accurate, complete records of the business they transact and the money they handle, and to have them available when the regulator asks. The sources here state this most concretely for surplus lines agents: removing the accounts and records of surplus lines business from Florida (or the agent's state of residence) while they must still be kept is a ground for losing the license, and so is failing to file required affidavits or reports on time.

Disciplinary actions

The department's main tools are to deny an application, or to suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew a license or appointment. The general grounds for disciplining agents are found in s. 626.611 and s. 626.621; the surplus lines provisions show both at work, with discipline required on some grounds and left to the department's discretion on grounds under s. 626.621. For a surplus lines agent, the department must act on grounds such as:

  • closing the office for more than 30 consecutive days,
  • failing to pay surplus lines tax or service fees,
  • losing the underlying general lines, customer representative, or managing general agent license or appointment, or
  • any cause for which a general lines agent's license could be suspended or revoked.

Discipline also spreads: when a surplus lines agent is disciplined on these grounds, all other licenses and appointments the person holds under the code are affected.

Exam tip: 4-hour update course + elective hours every 2 years (20 elective, or 16 after 6 years). Uncertified CE can mean an immediate end to your appointment.

Key terms

Sample questions

How often must a Florida insurance licensee complete the required continuing education hours?

  • Every year
  • Every 4 years
  • Only once, in the first year after licensing
  • Every 2 years
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