Ideally, you’ll start working on your continuing education requirements shortly after you complete your initial training and pass the license exam. Of course, not many of us are that farsighted or diligent, particularly when we have an insurance career to launch.
If you fall into this category, fear not; in this article, we provide the low down on how to get your insurance continuing education quickly — all in a step-by-step format.
Step #1 — Determine Your State’s Continuing Education Requirements.
In most states, 24 hours of continuing education is required every two years to renew your insurance producer license. There are a few exceptions. For example, Arizona requires 48 hours over four years. Iowa requires 36 hours over three years. Massachusetts requires 60 hours within the first three years of being licensed.
Not only that but several states require courses to be taken in certain topics, such as ethics training. And still, other states require a certain number of courses to be taken with specific delivery methods. For example, the Texas Department of Insurance requires agents to take 24 credit hours, but at least 12 of the hours must be done in the classroom or by courses approved as “classroom equivalent.”
We make it easy for you to know your specific CE and renewal requirements. Our License Management Pages provide a detailed listing of the requirements for almost all states along with links to everything you need to manage your insurance license. Agents can look up your license number and status, access your CE transcript, complete your license renewal application, or use a host of other resources we provide to make it easy to keep your license active.
Step #2 — Determine the Time Available to Complete the Coursework.
Now that you have found the continuing education requirements for your license, you’ll need to determine how much time you have available to complete the coursework. Look for your license expiration date and count down the days, weeks, and hopefully, months left before your continuing education needs to be completed.
Step #3 — Signup for Continuing Education.
After you’ve selected your state on our course catalog, you have two options for continuing education: online text-based courses and instructor-led webinar courses.
The online, text-based training is self-paced and delivered to your computer, tablet, and smartphone. The quizzes and exams are scored instantly, and you can take them as many times as necessary to pass. Plus, you can return to the training whenever it is convenient. The course progress bar takes you back to exactly where you left off.
Our webinar courses are instructor-led and delivered live using video conferencing. You’re required to be in attendance for the full class time, with check-ins at random times through the webinar to confirm your attendance. Students can interact and ask questions. Advantages to webinars include no required reading and no quizzes or final exams.
With our online, text-based courses, we also offer “complete compliance” packages that make your course selection super easy. These packages are designed by our compliance professionals and contain everything you need to meet your CE requirements with one simple selection, at one low price. We also offer individual courses so that you can pick and choose the type of training that best meets your learning needs. You can find further insight in our blog post Differences Between Webinar Courses and Traditional Online Text-Based Courses. 
Step #4 — Set Aside Time for Study. Establish a Completion Schedule.
While it might be tempting to take a week or so off from work to devote to your continuing education, it’s probably best to determine how much time you can set aside for study during a normal week as well as on the weekend. Regular study will get the job done and help you better retain what you learn.
Once you’ve been able to determine how much time you have available over the course of a week, you can then build a schedule for completing all the required continuing education hours before your license expires. Don’t wait until the last minute to accomplish this work.
Step #5 — Complete Your Continuing Education.
Day-by-day and week-by-week is the steady way to complete all your continuing education requirements. Stick to the schedule you’ve planned, working on a regular basis to get everything accomplished. Our online text-based courses are perfect for this approach. You can spend minutes or hours on the training — pausing when needed and coming back to the exact spot you left off at any point in the future. Our insurance CE webinars provide the easiest way to “learn and earn.” You can earn your CE credits from the comfort of your own computer, smartphone, or tablet while learning about some of the most important and relevant topics facing the insurance industry.
Step #6 — Submit Your Renewal Application.
Once you’ve completed a course, we post the results to your state’s department of insurance the same day. So, you’ll be all set to apply for renewal. Once you’ve applied for renewal, make sure you set reminders for the next round of renewal training. We can help there, too. Find the compliance reminder button on our home page and sign up for our free email reminder service.
Now is the Time to Start Your Continuing Education.
The good news is that we’ve got you covered with all the courses you need in the format that best fits your available time and your preferred learning style, whether that’s online text-based courses or webinars.
We offer complete compliance packages to make course selection super easy. You can select all the courses you need with one click.
At BetterCE we provide more than the most convenient and affordable solution for insurance continuing education. Our agent support services are provided by experienced insurance licensing professionals who have helped thousands of agents easily navigate the insurance license renewal process.
Have a question or need assistance? Phone 1-888-501-7330 for our customer care team. We also respond to email as well as via our Contact Form. On our contact page, you can also sign up for convenient license renewal reminders.
