Sadly, this is the mindset of many agents when it comes to continuing education. Every agent knows the important role that continuing education (CE) plays in keeping up with the industry’s ever-changing business environment. “I don’t think that a lot of them view it as a learning experience or a review experience,” said Ed Zurek, co-founder of InsuranceStudy.com. “Instead, they see it as a necessary evil for the licensing process.”
Continuing education for the industry began back in the 1970s, when Minnesota imposed mandatory CE requirements for licensed insurance agents. Eventually, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) passed a “blueprint” Model Continuing Education Act in 1978, but it was modified by each state that adopted it, making it a bit of a nightmare to track. Today, independent agents are required to take courses in order to maintain licensure in 48 states. And it looks like it won’t be long before the two remaining states—Vermont and Hawaii—hop on the CE bandwagon, as both states have recently passed legislation on CE.
The good news is that in addition to attending a seminar or completing a self-study course, today’s agents now have the option of online CE. And thanks to technology, taking CE courses online is the fastest and most convenient way to fulfill the state-mandated requirements.
“Insurance education takes many forms on the Internet: online insurance information delivery systems, electronic subscription services, virtual classrooms, e-news and webzines,” said Cindy Davidson, director of insurance publishing, eMind.
Founded in 1998, eMind is the exclusive online provider of selected courses from The American College, and an online provider of courses from the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters/Insurance Institute of America.
State-to-state challenges
Some agents may have an easier time fulfilling CE credits online than others, and that’s because each state has its own system for continuing education requirements.
“We’ve been involved in the work on uniformity and reciprocity that’s happening at the NAIC level where they are looking at agent licensing and continuing ed as one place where the states could maybe all get along,” Davidson said. “It’s not a logical system…the states are not even aware of each other’s requirements.”
InsuranceStudy.com’s Zurek agreed that the most difficult part of the entire online CE process has been dealing with state regulatory bodies. “Each one is unique—some are more proprietary than others, some take great pride in CE—so it really runs the gamut,” he said.
InsuranceStudy.com, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Wheaton, Ill., provides an assortment of CE courses in both property/casualty and life/health industries solely via the Internet. “Frankly, I think CE is a revenue generator for a lot of the states…I think that’s one of the reasons CE exists,” Zurek said.
Whether or not that’s the case, agents still need to comply with state requirements in order to avoid fines and license interruption. And those holding nonresident licenses in multiple states, as well as company employees who are responsible for keeping agent licenses current, need to keep abreast of all of the variances from state to state.
Hour requirements are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to CE credits. According to eMind’s Davidson, agents also need to know how those hours are calculated; whether correspondence or classroom education is permitted; whether an exam is required; whether that exam can be open book or requires a proctor; what subject areas qualify as professional education; when the requirements come due; and how proof of completion is submitted to the state insurance department.
Time is of the essence
“Unfortunately, commissions are shrinking in our business, which means that time is more precious,” Zurek said.
One of the biggest drawbacks to CE requirements has always been the time it takes to fulfill the necessary hours. Procrastination often leads to registering for any—the good, the bad, or even the ugly—available state-approved CE course. And we all know that cramming for a course does not always produce the best results.
“We’ve found that most agents log on at the end of the month, right before their certification expires,” Davidson explained. “We really are built for the procrastinator, but understand that we tell agents to give themselves some time—especially in California—because once we send your name up to the state…it does take time.”
Nevertheless, immediacy is a big advantage for all online CE providers.
“The business model that we’ve created is to deliver just-in-time continuing education to licensed professionals,” said Les Ward, CEO of WebCE, based in Richardson, Texas. “And the systems that we have built are very efficient.”
WebCE’s courses have been approved and are available in 38 states with more approvals projected soon. While the company expects its Internet-based solutions to become most popular with users, WebCE will continue to focus on both traditional and technology-based training solutions.
“A year ago, convincing an independent agent to take a CE course online was a real challenge for us, but it’s really growing like wildfire,” Ward said. “I think that word of mouth helps. Agent A is telling Agent B in the agency that it’s easy and it’s quick.”
Creating positive relations
With more and more online courses popping up every day, the providers are learning the importance of marketing.
For example, Chino, Calif.-based FastrackCE formed an agreement with two retail agencies—Auto Insurance Specialists and Eastwood Insurance—to provide CE for all of their employees. “In addition to providing the CE, we also provide them with a management program that will allow us to run reports on the status of their employees’ licenses and how many hours of CE they’ve completed with us,” said Brad Nevins, one of the partners of FastrackCE.
The goal of the company is to be able to provide a complete report that will not only show completed courses through FastrackCE, but also the total number of hours that the Insurance Department has in its system.
“Fortunately, because of our relationships in the industry, we’ve been able to market our product through some of their resources,” Nevins said. “For example, FSC just did a mailing for us to 4,000 agents, or all of their customers in the state, so it’s been working out very well.”
As a licensed provider in California, FastrackCE currently offers 12 different courses available to Golden State agents, and the next step is to expand into Texas.
Finding quality content
When eMind first decided to get into the insurance industry, they were aggregating content, hoping to build up an inventory of core topics. “Now we’re looking to differentiate ourselves with new content, like a course on cyber insurance,” Davidson said.
The fact is that some agents really don’t care about course content; they are much more concerned with the number of hours. But how does an agent who is looking for value know which courses are good and which are garbage?
“You have to wonder—do they really care? Most of our clients are corporate, so they’re picking the content…they definitely want their agents educated,” Davidson said. “But I’d be suspicious of any vendor that didn’t at least have a demo or basics about the course before you have to pay and launch.”
On a similar note, Zurek takes pride in the course content of InsuranceStudy.com. “If we really wanted to ‘dumb down’ our material, we wouldn’t put a randomizer [which changes test questions] in there,” he said. “We’re trying to add some legitimacy to it, and we’ll actually probably lose business because our material is a little more difficult than other sites, but that was my goal.”
Cheaters never prosper
“Providers of online CE courses have found different ways to protect the integrity of the courses they offer. For example, to ensure test security, WebCE created an online testing and proctoring solution, TestSmart©, which enables insurance professionals to complete their CE training faster and easier. After completing a course, the insurance professional can elect to take a printed or online version of the test.
eMind is another company that constructed a proctoring routine. Davidson feels that online proctoring dramatically changes the timeframe in which an agent can meet his or her state CE and license renewal requirements. “Our proctoring routine goes by your resident state, so if you were on our site and you were registered as a California agent, and you completed the course and wanted to take the test, you could just go ahead and take it, because California doesn’t require a proctor.
“But if you’re registered as an Oregon agent, if you try to click on the test, the proctoring routine pops up saying that you are licensed in a state that requires you to take a proctored exam.”
Meanwhile, InsuranceStudy.com has the ability to deliver both closed-book exams and proctored exams, Zurek said. “So we have that security built into our system…we won’t issue credits unless the agent can demonstrate there was a proctor involved.”
Re-inventing the learner
“Online CE is still in its infancy and I think it will evolve significantly over the coming years,” FastrackCE’s Nevins said.
According to eMind’s Davidson, an agent who wants to take a shot at online continuing education needs to be a “pretty astute Internet user.” “And I would say that’s probably a marketing disadvantage for us at the moment,” she added. “How many agents are online? How many have the bandwidth to be handling this? How many are inclined to complete their CE differently than they’ve ever done it? How do we convince them of the ease of use and how engaging it is?”
“It’s still a big mix [of agents going online to fulfill CE courses and agents using traditional methods such as seminars or self-study], but it’s growing very dramatically towards all-electronic,” said WebCE’s Ward. “It’s an exciting field and we’re elated to be involved in it.”
The bottom line is that there are 1.5 million licensed insurance professionals in this country, which makes for a large number of continuing education requirements. And while agents are getting more comfortable navigating around the Internet, CE providers are doing their part to ensure that valuable CE hours can be obtained as quickly and easily as possible. With time, it should only get easier.
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