California insurance brokers and agents must take continuing education classes if they want to maintain and renew their insurance license. Read also: How to Locate NY Insurance Continuing Education Classes Online.
The CE requirements vary depending on type of license. California has an interesting way of listing their continuing education requirements. For example, fire and casualty brokers/agents who are licensed after 1992 must complete 25 credit hours each 12 months for the first four years of licensure. The 25 credit hours must include 4 hours of ethics. However, after the first four years, the course hour requirement drops to 24 continuing education credits per two-year license term (including 4 hours of ethics).
Make sure to visit the Department of Insurance to see how many continuing education credits your license type requires. Read also: Training to Become a Licensed Insurance Professional.
Where to Find Approved Insurance CE Classes
There are two ways to search for approved continuing education classes; you can search by provider or search by course.
California Insurance Continuing Education Providers: If you have an idea of the name of the school you wish to use, then the Education Provider Search is for you. As of this writing there are over 375 education providers listed in the Department of Insurance database.
To search all you have to do is select the type of class you wish to take (pre-licensing or continuing education) and insert the name of the provider. The provider name is not a required field in the search, but if you leave it blank the site will display an alphabetical list of over 375 providers. It’s best to narrow it down by inserting the provider name.
California Insurance Continuing Education Classes: Using the Provider Course Search option gives insurance agents/brokers better, narrower results. With search options such as License Type, Education Type, Instruction Method, Category Type, Start/End Date, Course Hours, City and County, you can narrow your results to a given school, City or even County.
The only required field is the Education Type (continuing education or pre-licensing). The rest of the fields are optional, but recommended. With over 2,000 available continuing education courses, the more information you put in your search query the better. Read also: Becoming a Licensed Insurance Producer in Maine.
Once you locate the necessary provider/courses, contact the school, register and start the journey to satisfying the state requirements. Make sure to keep track of your credits. You don’t want to find out at renewal time that you’re short several credits.