Alabama Insurance Continuing Education

Resident Requirements

Meeting state Continuing Education (CE) requirements is mandatory to renew an insurance license in the state of Alabama. Any individual who is licensed to sell insurance in Alabama and is not exempt must complete the required amount of CE for their position every two years.

Insurance producers, adjusters, title agents, and combined-license holders are required to complete 24 hours every two years. Service representatives must complete 12 hours every two years.

A portion of required CE hours must cover ethics. Service representatives must complete two hours of ethics CE, and all other agents must complete three hours.

Rules for Non-Residents

In some cases, non-residents may be exempt from Alabama insurance Continuing Education requirements.

If you are a licensed non-resident who completed the CE requirements of your home state, you do not have to complete Alabama CE requirements. However, you must specifically claim this exemption during renewal or else you must complete Alabama CE courses as outlined above.

Carryover of Excess CE

While additional CE hours can benefit the individual, these excess hours cannot be carried over to the next licensed term.

Insurance License Term Renewal Requirements

The date of license renewal is determined by birth date, not by date of original licensure. License renewal occurs on the last day of the licensed individual's birth month every other year.

Individuals born in even years have their licenses renewed in even years, and individuals born in odd years have their licenses renewed in odd years. For a license renewal to go through, all CE hours must be submitted and logged prior to the renewal date.

The license renewal process is not automatic, and producers must specifically apply for renewal. The application to renew a license may be submitted up to 90 days before the renewal date, or up to 30 days after with the addition of a late fee. After this period, the license will expire.

Rules for Taking the Exam

All CE exams must be taken closed-book, with no additional outside materials to assist during the test. All exams must be passed with a minimum of 70% correct for the CE hours to count towards renewal requirements. If you don't pass the exam the first time, retakes are permitted without limit.

All exams must be proctored to ensure compliance with these guidelines. The proctor must be a disinterested third party. No family members, friends, coworkers, or individuals with a financial interest in the exam-taker's success may proctor a CE exam. Exams taken without a proctor are considered invalid and will not be accepted by the state of Alabama.

Rules for Repeating a Course

Courses may not be repeated during a single licensure period. After the date of license renewal, however, a course may be repeated to receive credit for the next renewal period.

Credit for Instructors

Producers or service representatives who teach CE courses must still complete the required number of CE hours for license renewal. Each unique course taught counts once towards CE hours. Teaching a course more than once in a renewal period does not further increase the number of CE hours completed.

Reporting Rules

For CE compliance to be confirmed, the CE provider submits the credit hours directly to the state of Alabama. The producer does not need to submit credit hours to the state. You can check the status of CE hour completion through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners website.

It is important to keep your own records of CE hours, including completion certificates. In some cases, the state of Alabama may audit a license. The producer will then need to provide copies of all original CE certificates of completion for the respective licensure period.

Insurance CE Requirement Exemptions

There are multiple groups who are exempt from Alabama's CE requirements, including:

• Non-resident producers or adjusters who have completed their home state's CE requirements, unless their home state does not require CE for licensure.
• Any individual who has been licensed for fewer than 12 months by the time they must first renew their license.
• Any producer whose license only permits acting with legal services, or dental, credit, rental motor vehicle, crop, travel, motor club, or portable electronic insurance.

Individuals who fell into any of the following categories prior to January 1, 2013 are also exempt from current Alabama insurance CE requirements:

• Any individual continually licensed in Alabama for at least 15 years who was also over the age of 60.
• Any individual licensed for limited lines insurance or debit fire insurance.
• Any individual designated a CPCU, CIC, CLU, CFC, CFP certificant, RHU, REBC, CHC, or ARM.
• Any member of the Alabama legislature.

Alabama Annuity Insurance Requirements 

As of January 1st, 2022, insurance producers cannot negotiate, solicit, or sell any annuity product in Alabama before completing an annuity suitability training course based on the revised 2020 “Suitability in Annuities Transactions” model regulation.

If you have completed a four (4) hour annuity course prior to 01/01/2022, you must either:

Complete the one-time, one (1) hour annuity best interest course before 06/30/2022; or

Complete a new four (4)-hour course approved for the new annuity best interest standards

Alabama Long-Term Care Training Requirements

Insurance producers must complete specific training to sell, solicit, or otherwise negotiate long-term insurance. These producers must be licensed for accident and health or sickness or life insurance, and must also complete one eight-hour training course before beginning to provide long-term insurance.

After completing the eight-hour training course, long-term care insurance producers must complete four CE hours specific to long-term care every licensing period. This is in addition to the 24 hours of CE that are required outside of long-term care.

• This training covers subjects including:
• The basics of long-term care insurance
• Long-term care services
• Qualified Partnerships and how they function
• How Qualified Partnerships interact with public or private long-term care coverage

Regardless of whether an individual is exempt from CE hours, federal law mandates that all long-term care producers must complete associated training. This includes both the initial eight-hour training and the biennial four-hour training. However, this training may be done in Alabama or a non-resident's home state.