Since the New York State Department of Financial Services announced that it has adopted a new regulation (effective Nov. 12, 2021) regarding mandatory continuing education courses, we've been receiving questions like this one:
I was hoping to run something past you quick regarding the attached revision to CE requirements. It states that this applies to any insurance producer whose license renews on or after April 1st. Does that mean that a licensed individual who is set to renew their license on April 2nd, 2022 are required to meet those requirements in order to renew their license even if they have taken 15 credits that don’t meet those 15 credit hours of instruction?
The short answer is yes, a producer or adjuster whose license renews after next March 31 must take the required courses, even if they're planners who have already taken enough credit hours to renew. When the DFS adopted the regulation, it posted an assessment of the public comments it received after it proposed the regulation last July. Three of those comments came from us. In one, we asked "whether an insurance producer renewing a license on or after April 1, 2022 must meet the new CE requirements during the CE cycle beginning on or after April 1. (We) noted that many insurance producers have already earned CE credits toward their 2022 license renewals and suggested that the amendment take effect at least two years after the amendment’s adoption."
The department's response dismissed our suggestion:
A licensed insurance producer or public adjuster (collectively, “licensees”) whose license renews on or after April 1, 2022 must demonstrate that the licensee has met the new CE requirements when renewing the license. DFS first published the regulation on its website for pre-proposed outreach in May 2021 and prior thereto, discussed the draft amendment with industry trade organization representatives. DFS pushed back the effective date to April 1, 2022 based on comments it received during the May outreach. In addition, courses on ethics, the New York Insurance Law, and flood insurance, for example, are already available and licensees can take these courses currently. As a result, licensees have had sufficient notice that DFS planned to adopt these new CE requirements and an opportunity to take these courses. Trade organizations already should have been educating their members on this proposed amendment and licensees should have started planning accordingly. In addition, DFS does not believe pushing back the effective date to two years after adoption is reasonable. (Emphasis added)
Consequently, even if you're the 180-degree opposite of a procrastinator and got your 15 hours done months before your license expires, your CE transcript will have to show the required courses in order for you to renew next spring. This may result in some people having to take more than 15 hours of courses. Unfortunately, that cannot be helped.
We have corresponded with DFS about how they will determine and publicize which courses meet the new requirements. We were told that the Licensing Bureau has not decided on that yet. Once we hear from them, we will publicize the answer here and in our future course advertisements.