What Continuing Education Do Arizona Insurance Producers Need?
If you’re an insurance producer in the state of Arizona, you don’t want to let your license expire. Not only is it illegal to produce insurance without a license in the Grand Canyon State, but you’ll also be faced with an additional $100 late renewal fee when you do renew your license. In short, it’s cheaper and easier to keep your license active. But before you can renew your license, you need to complete the required continuing education hours.
The Arizona Department of Insurance (soon to be known as the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions [DIFI] starting July 1) varies the number of required hours based on a few factors. Use this guide to figure out exactly how many continuing education hours you need to renew your specific Arizona insurance producer license.
How many Arizona insurance producer continuing education hours do I need?
If you’re not an Arizona resident, you don’t need to worry about Arizona continuing education hours. Instead, you just need to make sure you’re in compliance with licensing requirements — including any continuing education hours — in your home state.
If you are an Arizona resident, the number of hours you’ll need will vary depending on the type of license you have and when you first got your license. You’re exempt from continuing education requirements if:
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You’ve continuously held your insurance producer license since January 1, 1995
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You haven’t held a nonresident insurance producer license in any other state
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The Arizona Department of Insurance has never suspended, revoked, or denied the renewal of your license, issued a cease and desist order against you, or required you to pay a civil penalty or restitution
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You don’t sell flood or long-term care insurance (more on that in a minute)
If you got your license in 1995 or any time after, you’ll most likely need to complete 48 hours of continuing education during each renewal period. To make sure you’re taking the right number of hours, complete this quick survey from the Department of Insurance. You’ll need to know some license details, and you can use the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) state-based lookup page to find them. You’ll just need your license number and your National Producer Number (NPN) to find yourself — and the relevant details — in that system.
Flood insurance and long-term care insurance producer requirements
If you produce flood insurance, you’re required to complete three hours of training with the National Flood Insurance program. If you produce long-term care insurance, you need to finish four hours of long-term care insurance training during each two-year period.
If you have had your license since before 1995, you still need these hours. If not, you can count these license-specific hours toward the total continuing education hours you need during each renewal period.
How do I complete the required Arizona insurance producer continuing education?
Once you know how many hours you need, it’s time to start completing those hours. Make sure you take them from a Department of Insurance-approved provider. You can use this tool to lookup approved course options.
Don’t worry. You don’t need to dedicate more than a full workweek to sitting in a specific classroom at a specific time. Arizona has approved some education providers to offer course hours online. This way, you can knock out the hours you need at your convenience.
Once you finish a course, your education provider gives you a Certificate of Compliance or course completion certificate. You can also use this transcript lookup tool to confirm that your completed hours have been reported to the state.
Stay on top of your hours so you can complete them before your renewal is due. If you do, renewing your Arizona insurance producer license on time should be a breeze.