BILL NUMBER:  S7940

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to continuing education
for agents, brokers, adjusters, consultants and intermediaries

 PURPOSE :

To eliminate the need for insurance agents and brokers to take
duplicate continuing education courses for both their individual and
agency insurance licenses.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of the bill amends § 2132(b) of the Insurance Law to add a
new section 3 that allows for renewal of the business-entity license
without evidence of continuing-education credits if all entity
sublicensees have a valid and appropriate insurance license as of the
entity license renewal date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Section 2132 of the New York State Insurance Law provides that a
licensee must complete 15 credit hours of continuing education during
each two-year licensing period. This applies to agent and broker
              

individual licenses and to their business-entity licenses. The
two-year period preceding the renewal of a business-entity license may
not be the same (and generally is not the same) as the period
preceding the renewal of the individual licenses of the sublicensees.
As a result, the education period to comply with both the individual
and entity licenses can become substantially compressed to fit in a
period that is within two years of the later-dated license renewal.
For some insurance agents and brokers this can mean as little as three
months to complete their CE courses that apply to their multiple
licenses.

The move from set expiration dates to birthdate license renewals for
individual licenses dramatically increased the difficulty of
negotiating and identifying appropriate bridge courses that would
satisfy the 15-hour CE requirements for insurance agents who hold
multiple individual and business-entity sublicenses.

This proposal would amend the continuing-education requirements to
allow for renewal of the business-entity license without evidence of
continuing-education credits if all entity sublicensees have a valid
and appropriate insurance license as of the entity license renewal
date. In return, it would be incumbent upon the business entity to
assure that all sublicensees maintain valid licenses and are up to
date with their CE.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

This proposal could result in increased revenue for the state through
licensing fees by removing the financial incentive for those with
multiple licenses to forego their individual insurance agent and
broker licenses.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.