Suitability of Annuity and Life Insurance Transactions for Seniors-FL 197-senior-suitability

Florida State Requirements

Updated: 12/13/2013

Continuing Education Hours

• For LH, PC & Title agents - 24 hours biennially in basic or higher level courses, including 3 hours in ethics.
• LH, GL (PC), and PL licensed 6 years or more must complete 20 hours of intermediate or advanced level courses, biennially.
• Adjusters must complete 24 hours biennially (2 hours Ethics, 10 hours Law, 12 hours Optional).
• Customer representatives, limited customer representatives, administrative agents, solicitors, title agents or industrial fire and burglary agents who are not dually licensed as LH agents must complete 12 hours biennially.
• Agents licensed for 25 years or more, who are also CLUs or CPCUs or who have B.S. degrees in risk management or insurance with 18 or more semester hours in upper-level insurance-related courses, must complete 12 hours biennially.
• Workers compensation adjusters are required to complete 24 hours biennially including 2 hour in ethics, 10 hours workers compensation law and policy, and 12 hours in any workers compensation subjects.

Course Subject Requirements

• Courses must be approved for lines of insurance for which agent is licensed.
• LH agents who also have an industrial fire and burglary license must have 24 hours in LH and 4 hours in industrial fire.
• LH/GL (PC) combined licensees must complete 50% of hours in LH and 50% in PC.
• LH/GL (PC) agent hours must include 3 hours Ethics.
• All Florida licensed insurance agents who currently sell or may sell flood insurance through the NFIP must complete a one-time 3 hour training course about the NFIP. (These 3 hours are not required in addition to the normal number of credit hours required for each agent.)

Continuing Education Subject Requirements

Compliance Periods ending on or before 9/30/2014

Category restrictions:
Courses must be taken in the specific license type held.

Licensed LESS than 6 years must take basic, intermediate or advanced level courses can be completed.
Licensed 6 years or MORE must take intermediate or advanced level courses to receive continuing education credit.
Limited Customer Service Representatives (CSR) - Limited CSR's may complete their requirement by taking courses listed in the course matrix under the 4-42 authority as well as any course approved for ethics (9908).
Combination Licensees with less than 6 years - Must complete 10 CE hours in each major category including 3 hours in Senior Suitability and 1 hour in Premium Discounts/Mitigation Options.
Combination Licensees with more than 6 years - Must complete 8 CE hours in each major category including 3 hours in Senior Suitability and 1 hour in Premium Discounts/Mitigation Options.
Title agents may only complete courses approved for title agents.

Compliance Periods ending on or after 10/31/2014

Category restrictions:
Producers and adjusters may take any course approved for CE by the Florida Department of Financial Services.

The 5-hour Law and Ethics Update course must only be completed for one of the Florida insurance licenses you hold.
Customer Representatives and Limited Customer Representatives must complete the 5-hour Law and Ethics Update course for the 220 line of authority.
Public adjusters may only complete courses approved for public adjusters.
Title agents may only complete courses approved for title agents.

Continuing Education Compliance Date

End of birth month following the second anniversary of the first license issuance date, and then biennially thereafter.

License Renewal Date

End of birth month following the second anniversary of the first license issuance date, and then biennially thereafter.

Type of Courses Accepted for CE Credit

Independent self study courses or classroom courses.

Carryover Requirements

Up to 24 excess hours may be carried over to the next reporting period.

Course Repetition

Courses may not be taken for credit more than once in a 3 year period.

Final Exam

Exams do not have to be monitored, however the person taking the exam must sign an affidavit swearing that they completed the exam without any assistance, and the affidavit must be signed in the presence of a disinterested third party who also signs the affidavit. The form must then be faxed in to the CE provider. 

Exemptions

• Individuals with a limited lines license that an exam is not required.
• Individuals with any of the following limited licenses: dental representative, motor vehicle physical damage and mechanical breakdown agent and crop hail and multiple peril crop agent
• Individuals who are officials or employees of a government entity and whose job description requires them to say current on insurance issues. Request for approval from the Florida Department of Financial Services is required.

Method to Certify Completion

Your certificate of completion will be e-mailed to you after your exam is completed. The course provider reports credits earned to the Florida Department of Financial Services within one business day of course completion. The agent keeps the original certificates of completion in his or her files. Students may submit transcripts for college level courses.

Nonresidents

Nonresident agents and adjusters are not required to complete FL approved courses. To be compliant with the FL requirement, a nonresident agent must meet their resident state CE and a nonresident adjuster may meet their resident or any state CE requirement where and adjuster license is held.

For Additional Information Please Contact

Florida Department of Financial Services
Bureau of Agent and Agent Licensing

Room 419 Larson Building
200 E. Gaines St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0319

Phone: (850)413-3134 option 9

Fax: (850)488-8253

Website: https://licenseesearch.fldfs.com/

Check the Status of Your License and CE Credits.

Use the insurance license florida lookup link below to determine the status of your insurance license in florida.

1. Go to https://licenseesearch.fldfs.com/
2. Fill in your Florida License # or other information to locate your status.
3. We offer fully compliant insurance courses if you need florida insurance ce credits.
   https://www.kruise.com/shopping/purchase-courses/florida
   
4. When you complete a course, we submit all the certification paperwork to the State of Florida for you. Nothing else for you to do.

Seminars & Classroom Courses

These courses are instructor led programs, usually in a live classroom setting, and do not require you to pass an exam to receive CE credit for the course. 

You must choose one of the locations listed in the options above. Please make note of the address of the seminar you choose. You will also receive an email confirmation of your enrollment, which will include the address of the seminar. You can return here to review the address if you misplace it before the class.

All of our seminars begin at 8:30 AM and end at 4:30 PM unless otherwise noted on your confirmation notice.  Please arrive at the classroom at least 10 minutes before the starting time on your confirmation notice. All students must be signed-in and seated BEFORE the official class start-time. If you arrive late, please DO NOT interrupt the class in session. You can talk to the instructor at the first break regarding the possibility of obtaining credit for the class or rescheduling for another date. Remember, these classes fill up quickly, and there is usually little or no room for agents who arrive at the last minute without registering in advance.

Cell phones must be turned off during the entire duration of the seminar. You will have time to return messages and make calls during breaks and at lunch. 

During the class, you must not have any materials on your desk except the textbook or handout provided by the instructor. By law, students who are reading other materials, talking to other students, sleeping, or otherwise not participating in the learning experience are not allowed to receive CE credit!

Absolutely no recruiting or marketing for products, services, employment or any other activity is allowed at any time during the seminar - including during breaks and lunch. Students caught doing this may be asked to leave immediately and will NOT receive a refund.

CA PARTNERSHIP CLASS REFUND POLICY:

Due to the fact that we must pre-pay for locations, teachers, materials and shipping there is a 10-day cancellation or refund policy for classroom courses. If you find you need to cancel a classroom course you may either:

1. Request a refund with our refund request form no later than 10 days from the class date: www.kruise.com/refund.pdf
2. If you're inside the 10 day window you can move to a later class on our calendar or call and have us hold your payment for another time.
3. If you request a refund after we've already shipped your materials to the class you will most likley not be able to receive a full refund.

If you have received a CE voucher from an insurance company or wholesaler, you can redeem it by following these instructions. 

• Choose your course format - see "course format" tab for more details or click "learn more" above options.
• Click on the red "buy" button to proceed to checkout.
• Be sure to enter your Voucher Code when checking out to apply your discount.
• You will be able to download the study materials immediately by clicking the red "Download Course" on your receipt. It will also be emailed to you and will be available for one year in your customer account.
• You will also be provided with a link and information to access the exam.

Your voucher covers an online book, online exam, grading and one CE certificate for insurance. It DOES NOT INCLUDE printed books, printed exams, state fees or CE certificate(s) or reporting for additional designations or types of CE, although they are available as options for additional charge. 

If you choose printed books or exams, you will be charged the balance due during checkout.

If your state charges a fee to report your credit, this fee is due from you. When you check-out, you must pay this fee in order to access the course and obtain CE credit.

After you pass your exam, you will be able to purchase CE certificates for professional designations such as CFP, CPE, etc. you will be charged $10 for each one. Please DO NOT order these additional certificates unless you currently hold that professional designation. There are NO REFUNDS for additional certificates ordered and not needed.

Optional PACE or CFP Credit

Many of our Insurance CE courses are also approved for CE credit for agents who hold professional designations such as CLU, ChFC, CFP. The type of CE credit and number of hours approved are listed above in the course description.

If you hold a professional designation you may request a certificate for courses taken and exams passed for insurance CE credit. If you pass and exam and would like to get additional credit for one of these designations, please use the link to the left: "CFP & PACE Credit".

If you do not hold a professional designation and do not need any type of CE other than for your insurance license renewal, please do not order a PACE or CFP certificate. It will not benefit you and once ordered, there are no refunds!

There are no refunds for certificates ordered by mistake!

Monitor Instructions - Florida

IMPORTANT!!!

Your state requires that your exam(s) MUST be monitored.

The qualifications of the person who must monitor your exam are explained on the monitor form. The person monitoring your exam must be with you prior to beginning to take the exam. Taking the exam without your monitor present will invalidate your exam results and certificate.

The monitor must print, sign and complete the affidavit found by clicking Printable Monitor Form to indicate that the exam was taken without any outside help from any source. Please fax the completed monitor form to (619) 421-8171 or email your form immediately after completing the exam. Your exam will not be completed, and no CE credit will be awarded or reported to your state, until the properly completed, signed monitor form has been received (along with any state reporting fees that may be due).

System Requirements: All major browsers can be used to complete our courses.  This includes Internet Explorer 11.x or higher, Microsoft Edge 20 or higher, Firefox version 51 or higher, Apple Safari version 10.x or higher, and Google Chrome, version 56 or higher.

Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, and most Smartphones are also supported.

This course automatically includes a downloadable textbook and/or other course materials which you may print if you desire. When you are finished studying your course, the exam is taken online and it is graded immediately.  In most states you can also print your own certificate of completion, if you pass. There is no additional charge if you complete your course and exam completely online. 

If your state requires monitored exams, you must have your monitor sign-in and follow the monitor instructions BEFORE you begin the exam.  See the State Information tab, Monitor tab and Help Center for more information.