Hello PIB readers! As promised, here are the changes that are going to hit insurance licensees and prelicense students in the state of Oregon (and every other state as time goes on). Click HERE for a link to the insurance division page that has the new info!
Oregon has adopted new administrative rules that affect both current insurance license holders and prelicense students. According to the insurance division’s bulletin, this “rulemaking affects licensing, renewal, prelicense training and continuing education requirements for insurance producers. The changes in this rulemaking furthers licensing reciprocity for Oregon resident insurance producers and increases consistency between the licensing laws of Oregon and those of other states.” Read on for more!
First of all- prelicense training requirements have changed for all lines of insurance. See below for details!
- Property Insurance: 20 hours of prelicense training minimum
- Casualty Insurance: 20 hours of prelicense training minimum
- Life Insurance: 20 hours of prelicense training minimum (DOWN from 30 hours)
- Health Insurance: 20 hours of prelicense training (UP from 12 hours)
- Code (all lines): All code will be included within the above hours
WHAT??? Code is INCLUDED? Yup! Here’s how it works… there are code (statute) training requirements that are tested with each insurance prelicense examination, but as of this change they will NOT be considered a separate educational requirement. Instead, code is included within the hours shown above. SO…..let’s look at an example, shall we?
Let’s say that you have no license, and you are studying for your life insurance license. Prior to the change, you would have needed to complete 30 hours of life insurance training PLUS an additional 8 hours of statutes, for a total of 38 hours.
With the rule change, ALL of the code is to be completed within the 20 hours alloted to life insurance. That means
- All of the life insurance training specific to life insurance is included
- Life insurance code and statutes is included, and
- “Generic” statutes training that deals with the commissioner, licenses, resident license info, CE requirements, insurer examinations by the insurance divisions, etc that WAS a separate 8-hour course is now INCLUDED in the 20 hours of life insurance.
This means that the students will not have as many hours in the classroom or online as they have now. Oregon states that these are “minimum” requirements, and it is up to the educational provider as to how many hours are actually scheduled to complete the class. As long as the educational provider meets the minimum hours, the course will be approved.
Question: when will these changes become effective?
Answer: January 1, 2008
In closing, please let me know if you have any further questions and I will be happy to help! Just ask the PIB!