Continuing Education Requirements
What this domain tests
The continuing education domain tests the credit-hour rules that keep a Pennsylvania producer and surplus lines licensee in good standing, including approved course content, ethics, recordkeeping, and the consequences of a shortfall.
Core requirement
Pennsylvania insurance producers must complete 24 credit hours of approved continuing education every two-year license period, including at least 3 hours in ethics. Courses must be approved by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department and must be completed within the license term. Credit is generally not carried over from one term to the next, and duplicate courses do not count twice. A surplus lines licensee must satisfy the same producer CE requirement; the surplus lines license does not create a separate, lower standard. Some course topics, such as flood insurance, may be required for producers who sell those products, and state or federal law can add targeted training.
Records and audits
The producer must keep certificates of completion and be able to produce them if the Department audits the license. The Department may deny renewal or take disciplinary action when the record shows a deficiency. Extensions or waivers may be available for military service, illness, or other hardship, but they must be requested and documented rather than assumed.
Worked example
A producer completes 24 hours during the two-year term, but only 2 of those hours are ethics and 4 hours are from a course that was never approved by the Department. The producer has 18 acceptable hours, not 24, and is short both the ethics requirement and the total. The producer must complete an approved 3-hour ethics course and additional approved hours before renewal.
Traps
Counting unapproved self-study or vendor training; counting the same course twice; assuming ethics hours can be satisfied by general compliance training; and waiting until the last month, when approved courses may be full.