Mississippi Insurance Continuing Education

Resident Requirements

For each two-year license period, any agent who is not exempt must fulfill certain CE requirements before their license's expiration date.

Producers, adjusters, and public adjusters must complete the following requirements every two years: 

• 24 hours of continuing education 
• Three hours of ethics courses

You must take approved courses in the line of authority for which you are licensed. If you hold multiple lines, you may take courses in any line or combination of lines so long as the courses are taken to add up to 24 hours.

If you have only held your license for 18 months or less at the time it is set to expire, you must complete the following reduced requirements:

• 12 hours of continuing education
• No ethics courses

As with full two-year licensees, you must take approved courses in the line of authority for which you are licensed. If you hold multiple lines, you may take courses in any line or combination of lines so long as they add up to 12 hours. After this first renewal, your license will expire every two years, and you will be subject to the ordinary requirements. 

Limited line insurance producers and limited credit insurance producers are exempt from all continuing education requirements.

You may not receive more than 8 hours of CE credit in a single day. 

Rules for Non-Residents

If you are a non-resident in compliance with your home state's continuing education requirements, your CE hours may be used in place of Mississippi's requirements to renew your Mississippi license. Upon notification, the department will use the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) State Producer Licensing Database (SPLD) in order to verify your license status for another state.

Carryover of Excess CE

Additional education can be extremely beneficial, but it should be taken for personal profit alone. If you complete more than the required CE hours for any license term, you cannot apply excess hours to the next license term. 

Insurance License Term Renewal Requirements

Licenses last two years and expire on the last day of your birth month. If you are a new licensee whose renewal date falls only 18 months or less after the initial licensure date, you are subject to the reduced requirements outlined above.

You may renew your license online up to 67 days prior to its expiration date. Producer renewals cost $100 for each line of authority, and adjuster renewals cost $50. A $25 technology fee is applied to all renewals.

If you allow your license to lapse, you may apply for reinstatement within 12 months of the license's expiration date after demonstrating compliance with all requirements. A late fee applies, but you will not have to undergo additional testing. 

If your license has been expired for over a year, you will have to reapply in full, retaking any exams and submitting all required documentation.

Rules for Taking the Exam

In order to pass a continuing education course, you must score at least 70 percent on a final exam. The CE exam will be closed book, meaning that you may not refer to course material or any other outside sources while taking the exam. All exams must be monitored by an impartial proctor. 

If you do not pass an exam on the first try, you may retake the exam as many times as you like.

Rules for Repeating a Course

CE courses may be taken only once for credit during each two-year term. You may retake the course, but you will not receive additional credit.

Credit for Instructors

Instructors are eligible to receive the same number of continuing education credits for teaching a course that the students receive for taking it. Instructors cannot teach any individual course more than once for credit in any given two-year term. However, they can teach more than one unique course during a term and receive credit for each.

Reporting Rules

Your course provider will submit proof of course completion to Sircon on your behalf. If you want to look up how many CE hours you have completed and the number of requirements you have remaining, you may receive a free continuing education transcript by filling out the requested information on Sircon's website.

If you have completed a course that does not appear on your transcript, you must contact your course provider directly. The Mississippi Department of Insurance cannot help you with this issue.

Each course provider will issue you a certificate of completion when you pass the course. Although they will submit your credit hours, you must keep your certificate of completion for five years in order to resolve any disputes that may arise. 

The Mississippi Department of Insurance submits license and appointment information to the NAIC State Producer Licensing Database every day, but it may take up to two days for the information to appear there. If you hold a non-resident license for another state that will accept Mississippi's continuing education requirements, they may check on your Mississippi license status using this database.

Insurance CE Requirement Exemptions

There are three groups of licensees that are exempt from Mississippi insurance education requirements:

• Any non-resident producer or adjuster who completes the CE requirements of another state
• Producers who only hold limited lines licenses
• Inactive producers

All others must comply with Mississippi CE requirements.

Mississippi Annuity Requirements

Before handling annuity products, each licensee must take a one-time four-hour course approved by the Mississippi Department of Insurance. This four-hour course will apply towards the general CE requirements for that license term. 

Individuals who complete a substantially similar course in another state are exempt from this requirement.

Mississippi Flood Insurance Training Requirements

Licensees who intend to sell flood insurance must follow national guidelines. In order to sell flood insurance, the individual must complete a one-time minimum of three training hours as outlined by the National Flood Insurance Program and FEMA. This may be completed in any state in which the producer is licensed.