Understanding Your Professional License Renewal

by Mallory O'Sullivan | Jul 30, 2018
Professional License Renewal

Keywords for completing your required CE and CPE

Various professional licenses and designations require continuing education hours to maintain status or designation, including insurance agents, CFPs, CPAs, tax preparers and more. It is imperative that you complete your CE or CPE on time and in the manner required by your regulator. License and designation renewal requirements can seem convoluted and easily become confusing, especially as regulations are subject to change. There are several key things you should look for when completing continuing education courses to ensure they count towards your CE or CPE credit.

  • Required hours: Regulating bodies, including different states, require a different number of continuing education credits or hours for various license types. Make sure you are fulfilling all of your required CE or CPE hours and avoid taking any unnecessary courses.
  • License term: CE or CPE is typically due within a certain license period or term, meaning you have to complete your continuing education credit within a certain timeframe. License term varies by state or regulator.
  • Product training: Some states require product training courses for licenses such as Life and Health or Property and Casualty Insurance and more. These are continuing education courses that cover a specific product such as long-term care or annuities. Companies can also require product training courses for their employees, such a anti-money laundering.
  • Course requirements: Your state or regulator has its own set of rules for CE or CPE course format, delivery method, category restrictions and more. Make sure you are not wasting time by completing courses that do not fulfill these requirements.
  • Exam requirements: Some regulators and states require monitors for course exams, others are open-book or monitor-free. Acceptable passing scores also vary by regulator. Know your exam requirements in order to receive credit for your hard work in CE and CPE courses.
  • Repetition and carryover rules: These rules include whether or not you can take the same course multiple times for credit during a license or renewal term and how many extra CE or CPE hours will carryover into your next renewal cycle. Avoid taking courses unnecessarily by knowing these rules.
  • Reporting: Do you report your CE or CPE credits or does your continuing education provider? Knowing this will help you get your courses reported accurately and on time.

Continuing education rules can easily become overwhelming, after all, every state, regulator and license type is different. WebCE keeps up with renewal requirements for you and monitors state and regulatory requirements and updates. You can find the renewal requirements for your license or designation on the catalog page for your state or regulator. Avoid wasting time and easily complete your CE or CPE requirements by understanding your renewal requirements. View WebCE’s complete catalog for online continuing education and training courses.

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