KSA 40-240f. Continuing Education
40-240f. Continuing education requirements of individual agents; agent to report and keep record of courses attended; penalties for failure to comply; applicants for relicensure; requirements not applicable to inactive agents; approval and certification of courses; fees for certification; course provider to provide certificates of attendance and maintain records of attendees; course value not contingent upon passage of examination; recognition of independent study; nonresident agents, reciprocity. (a) For purposes of this section:
(1) 'Biennial due date' means March 31, 1991, and March 31 of each odd-numbered year thereafter. Effective January 1, 1997, the term shall mean the date of birth of the licensed agent who is required to complete C.E.C.'s and report the completion of such C.E.C.'s to the commissioner pursuant to this section, except that such due date shall not be earlier than two years from the date of the agent's initial licensure.
(2) 'Approved subject' or 'approved course' means any educational presentation involving insurance fundamentals, insurance law, insurance policies and coverage, insurance needs, insurance risk management, insurance agency management or other areas, which is offered in a class, seminar, computer based training, interactive internet training or other similar form of instruction, and which has been approved by the commissioner or the commissioner's designee under this section as expanding skills and knowledge obtained prior to initial licensure or developing new and relevant skills and knowledge.
(3) 'C.E.C.' means continuing education credit. One C.E.C. is at least 50 minutes of each clock hour of instruction or the C.E.C. value assigned by the commissioner or the commissioner's designee. The C.E.C. values shall be assigned in whole units. The commissioner or the commissioner's designee shall assign a C.E.C. value to each approved subject on a case-by-case basis.
(4) 'Biennium' means the period beginning on the effective date of this section and ending on March 31, 1991, and each two-year period thereafter. Effective January 1, 1997, for those agents who were born in an odd-numbered year, the term shall mean the period starting with the agent's biennial due date in 1997 and each two-year period thereafter, for those agents who were born in an even-numbered year, the term shall mean the period starting with the agent's biennial due date in 1998 and each two-year period thereafter.
(5) 'Inactive agent' means a licensed agent who presents evidence satisfactory to the commissioner which demonstrates that such agent will not do any act toward transacting the business of insurance for not less than two but not more than six years from the date such evidence is received by the commissioner. Such additional periods may be granted by the commissioner upon further presentation of evidence satisfactory to the commissioner.
(b) (1) Every licensed agent who is an individual and holds a property or casualty qualification, or both, shall biennially obtain a minimum of twelve C.E.C.'s in courses certified as property and casualty which, on and after April 1, 1995, shall include at least one hour of instruction in insurance ethics. No more than three C.E.C.'s shall be in insurance agency management.
(2) Every licensed agent who is an individual and holds a life, accident and health, or variable contracts qualification, or any combination thereof, shall biennially complete twelve C.E.C.'s in courses certified as life, accident and health, or variable contracts which, on and after April 1, 1995, shall include at least one hour of instruction in insurance ethics. No more than three C.E.C.'s shall be in insurance agency management.
(3) Every licensed agent who is an individual and holds a crop only qualification shall biennially obtain a minimum of two C.E.C.'s in courses certified as crop under the property and casualty category.
(4) Every licensed agent who is an individual and is licensed only for title insurance shall biennially obtain a minimum of four C.E.C.'s in courses certified by the board of abstract examiners as title under the property and casualty category.
(5) Every licensed agent who is an individual and holds a life insurance license solely for the purpose of selling life insurance or annuity products used to fund a prearranged funeral program and whose report of compliance required by subsection (f) of this section is accompanied by a certification from an officer of each insurance company represented that the agent transacted no other insurance business during the period covered by the report shall biennially obtain a minimum of two C.E.C.'s in courses certified as life or variable contracts under the life, accident and health, or variable contracts category.
(c) Individual agents who hold licenses with both a property or casualty qualification, or both, and a life, accident and health, or variable contracts qualification, or any combination thereof, and who earn C.E.C.'s from courses certified by the commissioner or the commissioner's designee as qualifying for credit in any class, may apply those C.E.C.'s toward either the property or casualty continuing education requirement or to the life, accident and health, or variable contracts continuing education requirement. However, a C.E.C. shall not be applied to satisfy both the biennial property or casualty requirement, or both, and the biennial requirement for life, accident and health, or variable contracts, or any combination thereof.
(d) An instructor of an approved subject shall be entitled to the same credit as a student completing the study.
(e) (1) An individual agent who has been licensed for more than one year shall, on or before the biennial due date, file a report with the commissioner that such agent has met the continuing education requirements for the previous biennium ending on such biennial due date. Every individual agent shall maintain a record of all courses attended together with a certificate of attendance for the remainder of the biennium in which the courses were attended and the entire biennium immediately following.
(2) If the required report showing proof of continuing education completion is not received by the commissioner by the biennial due date, the individual agent's qualification and corresponding license or licenses shall be automatically suspended for a period of 90 calendar days or until such time as the agent satisfactorily demonstrates completion of the continuing education requirement whichever is sooner and a penalty of $100 shall be assessed for each license suspended. If the required proof of continuing education completion and the monetary penalty is not furnished within 90 calendar days of the biennial due date, the individual agent's qualification and corresponding license or licenses will expire. The commissioner may waive the penalties of this subsection upon written application by the agent in cases of extreme hardship.
(3) An applicant for an individual agent's license who previously held a license which expires on or after May 1, 1989, because of failure to meet continuing education requirements and who seeks to be relicensed shall pass the examination required for issuance of the new qualification and license and provide evidence that appropriate C.E.C.'s have been completed for the prior biennium.
(4) An applicant for an individual agent's license who previously held a license which expired on or before April 30, 1989, for failure to meet the minimum educational requirements contained in K.S.A. 40-240b, and amendments thereto, as it existed prior to the passage of this act and who seeks to be relicensed shall pass the examination required for issuance of the new license.
(5) Upon written application by an individual agent, the commissioner may, in cases involving medical hardship or military service, extend the time within which to fulfill the minimum continuing educational requirements for a period of not to exceed 180 days.
(6) This section shall not apply to inactive agents as herein defined during the period of such inactivity. Upon return to active status or expiration of the maximum inactive period, the agent shall have the remainder of the current calendar year plus the next calendar year to comply with the continuing education requirement.
(f) (1) A course, program of study, or subject shall be submitted to and certified by the commissioner or the commissioner's designee in order to qualify for purposes of continuing education.
(2) The following information shall be furnished with each request for certification:
(A) Name of provider or provider organization;
(B) course title;
(C) date course will be offered;
(D) location where course will be offered;
(E) outline of the course including a schedule of times when subjects will be presented;
(F) names and qualifications of instructors;
(G) number of C.E.C.'s requested; and
(H) a nonrefundable course fee in the amount of $50 per course or $250 per year for all courses, and a nonrefundable annual provider fee of $100.
(3) Upon receipt of such information, the commissioner or commissioner's designee shall grant or deny certification as an approved subject and indicate the number of C.E.C.'s that will be recognized for the subject. Each approved subject or course shall be assigned by the commissioner or commissioner's designee to one or both of the following classes:
(A) Property and casualty or
(B) life insurance (including annuity and variable contracts) and accident and health insurance.
(4) A course or subject shall have a value of at least one C.E.C.
(5) A provider seeking approval of a course for continuing education credit shall provide for the issuance of a certificate of attendance to each person who attends a course offered by it. The certificate shall be signed by either the course instructor or the provider's authorized representative. Providers shall also maintain a list of all persons who attend courses offered by them for continuing education credit for the remainder of the biennium in which the courses are offered and the entire biennium immediately following.
The commissioner shall accept, without substantive review, courses submitted by a provider which have been approved by the insurance supervisory authority of any state or territory accredited by the national association of insurance commissioners. The commissioner may disapprove individual instructors or providers who have been the subject of disciplinary proceedings or who have otherwise failed to comply with any state's laws or regulations.
(6) The commissioner may grant approval to specific programs of study that have appropriate merit, such as programs with broad national or regional recognition, notwithstanding the lack of a request for certification. The fee prescribed by subsection (f)(2)(H) of this section shall not apply to approvals granted hereunder.
(7) The C.E.C. value assigned to any course, program of study or subject, other than a correspondence course, computer based training, interactive internet study training or other course pursued by independent study, shall in no way be contingent upon passage or satisfactory completion of any examination given in connection with such course, program of study or subject. The commissioner shall establish criteria for determining acceptability of any method used for on line verification of the completion of each stage of any computer based or interactive internet study training. Completion of any computer based training or interactive internet study training shall be verified on line in accordance with a method approved by the commissioner.
(g) The commissioner shall provide, upon request, a list of all approved continuing education courses currently available to the public.
(h) An individual agent who studies an insurance subject independently, other than an agent's examination, approved by the commissioner or commissioner's designee, and who passes an independently monitored examination, shall receive credit for the C.E.C.'s assigned by the commissioner or commissioner's designee as recognition for the approved subject. No other credit shall be given for independent study.
(i) The commissioner may waive the continuing education requirements imposed by this act for nonresident agents who provide evidence of compliance with continuing education requirements imposed by their state of domicile.
