As you should now be aware, the state of Washington is changing the rules relating to LTC Insurance. Effective 1/1/2009, Washington has implemented new training and certification rules for all producers that wish to sell or continue to sell LTC coverage. Here at ProSchools, we don’t want you to be left out in the dark. Read on to see how the rules changes affect you and what you have to accomplish to remain compliant with these new rules!
Due to the rule changes, all producers that have previously taken a LTC Certification Course prior to January 1, 2009 will be allowed to continue to sell LTC under that certification until the EARLIEST of the following dates:
- July 1, 2009 (read “6/30/09″) or
- your Washington resident license renewal date
Once you hit one of the above dates (again, whichever occurs earliest), you must have taken the NEW certification course or you CANNOT sell, solicit or negotiate LTC insurance from that date forward! The new certification course brings into play LTC partnership rules, federal changes to law, and concentrates on Washington’s LTC partnership and other rules. The old courses that every provider sold did NOT meet those requirements, thus the new course(s). For further clarification, please click HERE for a link to the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s document on the changes and the new requirements.
The new course is an 8-hour course, and details all of the new changes as well as reviewing the old rules and laws that are still in force. ProSchools has already received approval for this course, and will begin offering it at the earliest available date: January 1, 2009. We have also received approval to give all Washington resident licensees 8 full hours of CE credit as well as certification with this course! The Washington OIC will not allow the course to be sold until January 1, 2009.
If you have any questions or would like to be pre-enrolled for this required certification course, call any of our course consultants at 503-297-1344 or 800-452-4879 and they will see to it that you are ready to go when the product is released.
If you are an Oregon resident license holder, you are also required to have taken an accepted certification course in order to sell in Washington. You have a couple of choices in how you can satisfy this requirement. You can take:
- The Oregon 8-hour LTC certification course, which has been approved for reciprocity purposes in Washington and will give you Oregon CE credit hours, or
- The (new) Washington LTC certification course. This will only give CE hours to Washington resident licensees, but will serve for certification purposes for Oregon licensees selling LTC in Washington.
I know this can be a bit confusing, but if you have any concerns or questions, I would be happy to address them- just comment below!
-Gary