Continuing Education – Insurance
Insurance agents owe a lot to their clients. What they recommend a client can really impact their lives and their family’s lives. Agents must be knowledgeable with the products they are selling and also the ones they are not. They have to be able to distinguish the differences between different policies and their offerings. All insurance agents must pass an exam to receive their license. The exam is typically online and covers broad topics in whatever subject they are being licensed in. For instance, if you are becoming a life and health insurance agent you will learn about annuities, long-term care, HIPPA, and whole life policies. Once the agent receives their license they must keep it active by completing a certain amount of continuing education credits every 1-2 years depending on their state’s requirements. In this article we are going to discuss some of the various ways an agent can renew their license and suggest the best method available.
Insurance continuing education can either be a very tedious process or be very easy, depending on your state and how you are able to complete your continuing education. Online education is usually the fastest and easiest way to complete your hours. Online classes typically require reading a short book and taking an online exam. It is very stress free and easy to complete. Another method of attaining your credits is traveling to a live class. Depending on where the lectures are being offered this could be a hassle to drive to and it also requires you to be present at a certain time for the entire class. If you are completing your work online you can take a break and come back to the course. For instance, if you are taking an eight hour annuity course in a classroom, you have to sit in the classroom for an entire eight hour period. For agents with families they typically like their weekends to themselves. They do not want to have to worry about continuing education taking up an entire weekend. Another method to complete their educational requirements is a webinar. These are a mix of online and classroom courses. You can view the webinar from the comfort of your own home, but you do have to sit and listen to a presenter for a specific amount of time.
As you can see the insurance agent has some options when they are completing their credit requirements. One thing to make sure is you complete the state’s requirement before your license expires.