Good morning, PIBbers! There are things happening in Washington State concerning the great big world of insurance, and I think it’s a good idea that you know what these changes are going to bring into play! All the changes detailed in this post are for prelicense students only, even though veteran producers have some changes as well which will be explained in a later post. Read on for details!
Washington is getting on board with the NAICs national education and reciprocity mandates, and these changes will become effective on July 1, 2009. ProSchools will be ready to go in plenty of time! Here are the changes:
- All major lines of insurance (life, disability, property, casualty and personal lines insurance) have had changes to the required number of prelicense education hours in order to take the insurance examination. The current rules will be repealed as of 7/1/2009 and the new rules will be in force as of that date.
- All major lines of insurance are now consistent at a 20-hour prelicense requirement, and this 20-hour period now includes laws and rules for that license line.
- Continuing Education (CE) will be reduced to 24-hours every license period for all insurance licensees.
- Within those 24 hours of CE, all producers will be required to include proof of education that a 3-hour ethics course has been completed.
Here’s the link to the legislation for these rules: http://www.insurance.wa.gov/oicfiles/rules/new/R2008-06.pdf
That’s not all! I have wonderful news for those of you that would prefer to do your prelicense training online and not deal with the hassle associated with attending a lecture course.
Under current rule, in order for an insurance prelicense student to be given the authority to take an online or correspondence prelicense course instead of a classroom lecture course, the student had to either live 50 or miles away from a classroom course or be able to “prove hardship” if forced to attend the lecture class. The student had to apply for a “waiver of the classroom prelicense training requirement” which was time-comsuming and out-of-date in order to escape the classroom and “do it on their own.” This laborious and antique notion is SOON TO BE GONE!
Effective 7/1/2009, Washington has repealed this rule, and will now allow prelicense education to be fully completed online! ProSchools is well positioned for this transition as we have been the leader in online education since the word “digital” was invented! Look for ease of use, simplicity and the lesser costs of online educational systems to replace the traditional classroom lecture series in the near future for a lot of students!
We will not eliminate our lecture classes- they are a wonderful solution for those that need the classroom environment. Washington is simply allowing another option!
If you have any questions, please let me know!