If you want to maintain your life insurance license, you need to make sure you don’t run afoul of the continuing education (CE) requirements. This post will explain what your BC life insurance CE requirements are for your LLQP license. We have other guides for general insurance CE requirements.
The Insurance Council of BC is the regulatory body responsible for managing continuing education requirements for British Columbia. In order to qualify for credits, the courses you take have to contain “technical material”. Examples include material directly related to:
- Life insurance products
- Compliance with insurance legislation (Council Rules, Code of Conduct, Insurance Act, Privacy Legislation, AML, etc.)
- Ethics
- Errors & omissions
- Financial planning geared towards life insurance
There are different life insurance CE requirements in BC depending on your level of experience in the industry. The amount of LLQP CE credits you need depend on which of these 3 categories you fall into: new life insurance agent, experienced life insurance agent, or designation-holding life insurance agent.
LIFE INSURANCE LICENSE RENEWAL TERM
The renewal term for life insurance licenses is between June 1st and May 31st. So for example, the 2021 term would be June 1st, 2021 to May 31st, 2022.
You need to meet all BC Life Insurance CE Requirements each term or you risk having your license suspended or worse. To ensure you can prove compliance, the Insurance Council of BC requires that you keep records of your CE certificates for 5 licensing terms.
CE REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS
New life insurance agents are those who have had their license for less than 5 of the last 7 years in Canada. As a new life insurance agent, you need to earn 15 CE credit hours.
EXPERIENCED LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS
Experienced life agents are those who have had their license for more than 5 of the last 7 years in Canada. As an experienced agent, you only need 10 CE credits.
CE REQUIREMENTS FOR LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS WITH DESIGNATIONS
If you hold a professional designation like CFP, CLU, RHU, FCIA, FLMI, or CEBS, you only need 5 hours of continuing education to satisfy the Insurance Council of BC’s requirements.
[UPDATE JUNE 1st, 2021] Regardless of your years of experience or designations held, all Life and/or Accident & Sickness Insurance Agents need 15 CE Credits each licensing term.
